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'Constellation Program'.
DestoFalls
Member CommonPosts: 54
My interest in the topic of space exploration is as heavy an addiction as my one to chewing tobacco. My 'man cave' is not only full of Jacksonville Jaguars posters, but also about two-dozen posters of Saturn V rockets, Buzz Aldrin bouncing on the moon, shuttle launches, etc. I live in Florida and try with all my might to make every shuttle launch I can. It's an obsession.
The 'Constellation Program' was set out to put man back on the moon by 2020, and engineer a base on the surface on the moon. Sadly, the program will be coming to an end. I had dreams of sitting infront of the television with my kids like my father did with his father, and watch as man once again dances on the surface of our largest sattelite ( in High Definition 
).
The Apollo program was a beautiful display of the accomplishments of man. Sadly, since then, we've wasted so much time. Without the threat of sleeping under a communist moon, it seems as though our government has no interest in out-of-earth-orbit space exploration. Without cheap and frequent consumer space flights for citizens, the private sector seems to leave their two cents out of the jar as well.
*sigh*
Comments
Yeah, NASA sure has fallen far since the glory days in the 1960s. Most of it I blame on governmental and bureaucratic bloat and inefficiencies. No one wants to admit this failure started in the late 70s with the development of the Space Shuttle Program. This was supposed to be both cheap and able to relaunch monthly or faster. It was neither. Sadly, unless things at NASA change, I think the future of space exploration lies in private hands. We went from landing men on the moon in 1969 to being happy with landing little remote controlled cars (that got stuck in the sand!) on Mars in the 2004. With all the advances in technology we've had, that is pathetic.
I've had the chance to meet a number of Nasa members and the honest truth is, none of them want to have to work for them. They have these admirable goals which are simply chained up to politics and that will always be its greatest weakness. As long as the space programs are propoganda tools, they will never achieve true greatness in my mind. I also don't think public programs will achieve anything great, anytime soon.