Shuttle Lands for the Last Time

"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."--President John F. Kennedy, Joint Session of Congress, May 25, 1961

Fast forward to 2011, the United States will no longer be launching shuttle missions into space, but will rely on Russian, and possibly European, and Japanese capsules to place U.S. equipment into space. Budget cuts have grounded the shuttle program and will severely hamper the U.S. space program into the future.

Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.

...Let it be clear that I am asking the Congress and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action, a course which will last for many years and carry very heavy costs."--President Kennedy

Currently there is a lack of strategic vision on what role the U.S. will play with regard to its space program, much of the uncertainty emanates from the White House, who has given conflicting leadership direction on NASA's continued role. It's no wonder that NASA is in disarray when NASA Administrator stated on Al Jazeera in 2010, that President Obama told him before he took the job that he wanted him to do three things: inspire children to learn math and science, expand international relationships and "perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contributions to science...and math and engineering."

President Kennedy would shudder to think what happened to his beloved space agency!

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