Are we a space faring nation or not!?

[RANT]

When I saw the headline of this article in USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science...m?csp=obinsite

.... my first reaction was "What the BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPP!?"
Remember, Constellation was on an "unsustainable" path, running behind
schedule on all fronts because of inadequate government funding.
President Obama's proposal would remedy that. And yet now we find
that the NEW program is less feasible than the old one!? What the
BLEEEEEP!?

Then I skimmed the article and it looks like its designed to give the
average joe a comparison between reality and the movies. Ok. Then
other issues emerged that have ticked me off.

Forty years ago, we wnt from zero to Moon landing in less than 8
years. KSC did not exist when President Kennedy issued his challenge!
And yet by the end of 1969 we'd landed twice.

So why is it that in the forty years since it's almost impossible to
maintane even a debate about a program to send people somewhere beyond
LEO? Sorry, but shouldn't that be the easiest thing in the world,
given that we initially did it with technology less advanced than we
have now? Think about it: By 1967, 6 years after Kennedy's
challenge, we'd completed Mercury, conceived and flown Gemini, and
Apollo and Saturn, which had been designed years before, were ready to
go. In the same amount of time since President Bush issued his
"Vision of Space Exploration," we had STARTED to design a new vehicle,
Orion, and new rockets, in time for President Obama to axe them. Seems
like the pace had slowed. And what if Obama loses in 2012? Will
Dragon, Dream Chaser, and CST-100 still fly to LEO? Or will a
Republican president stir the pot again, and for how many more years
of high-tech naval staring (with kibitzing from the Internet for good
measuer)? And if he's reelected, will the government sides of his plan
fall prey to the same inadequate funding that killed Constellation?
Indeed, there may already be cuts in the work. Didin't Augustine
recomend INCREASING NASA's budget? Funny how that's the one part of
it Obama forgot!

Now, John Logsdon addressed these issues here ....


http://www.spacenews.com/commentarie...a-finally.html


..... but did he really cover all the bases? Or is there something
more fundamental at work?

What is wrong with us as a culture, that 40 years after going from
zero to AWESOME in 8 years we need as much time arguing, debating, and
designing to maybe get near the starting gate? What happened to our
drive to explore? DID WE EVER HAVE IT? Maybe the Brits, with their
traditions of colony building and martime surpemacy, are more suited
to it than a people who romanticize the frontier but can't seem to be
bothered with it anymore? We wrote the book on manned planetary
exploration! What is holding us back from adding more pages? I'll
agree sticker shock is part of it, but is that it?

I was 4 years olf when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Will Americans
set foot there again before I turn 104? And even then, will they be
in their own ship or a token presence on someone else's?

Are we a space faring nation or not? We seem to be trying to have it
both ways, do enough to have something on TV but not for too much
cost. Sooner or later we have to decide once and for all if we're
going to do this or not. No more pussyfooting around -- either get
serious or ground ourselves forever!

[/RANT]

"I am not A big, fat panda. I am THE big, fat panda" -- Po, Kung Fu Panda