The final shuttle mission is approaching. We have an international space station which houses U.S. Astronauts in space. Yet, once the Atlantis completes the final mission of the space shuttle program (STS-135), the astronauts who are at the station will be completely reliant on foreign governments. Why is our nation so apathetic that it is willing to allow its own citizens to be literally left out in the cold like this? What a pathetic set of circumstances we as a nation have allowed the Congress and the White House to commit. This has to be one of the worst lack of a plan for the future in recent history.
Re: What Our Nation Has Come to Because of the Lack of Leadership in DC Poor spelling and grammar skills?
While I completely agree with your sentiment on the space program, there's something about the this sentence that would make Dr. Who and H.G. Welles cry, and give Brannon Braga a stiffy.
Yeah, people are losing their houses, 1/6th of people are on food stamps, 1/10th of people are unemployed, astronauts have to use foreign spacecraft to get back from space, times are tough.
NASA should be eliminated and replacement agency set up whose primary job is coordinate and work with private industry through cooperation, grants etc to foster development of the future of US space travel. This should have happened in the mid 70's likely, certainly by 1990.
I think you are correct. Unfortunately, due to a complete and utter lack of leadership in DC, this isn't happening, nor will it happen anytime soon.