Anyway, I admit that the points you raise are valid upon further reflection. But that still doesn’t mean that NASA is suppsed to be McGyver and send people into space with a paper clip, gum and a condom. They need money to pay for research and development.

Where I disagree with you is that they haven’t done anything in forty years. If your measure of NASA’s success is how far and how fast they can send spaceships, then I believe you are sadly mistaken. NASA has made enormous progress in observing the universe and our solar system. Are you forgetting that fact that they have sent a serious amount of unmanned equipment to Mars? I mean, so what a person wasn’t on board? They got scientific equipment to another planet. I think that counts as doing SOMETHING, don’t you?

It consists of absolutely ZERO INNOVATION!

It is cop-out, half-assed, pathetic attempt at space travel using pre-engineered spare parts!

Lets take an existing Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) and bolt a lackluster crew module to it. But OH DRAT! – that causes excessive vibration between two parts not designed for each other…i know, we just put a big honkin spring AKA DEAD WEIGHT between the two of them. That will allow it to fly but virtually ELIMINATE it’s payload.

Budgets be damned, if NASA had any shadow of ingenuity left in it they would go back the drawing board and build a vehicle from scratch and remind the world who built the SECOND best space program in history!

We went to the moon in 1969! 1969! What the $%^#% have we done in four decades!…Nothing!…shame on us.

I first heard about the Orion space program when I was down in DC this past summer. NASA is going back to their roots of what made them so great and it is definitely exciting. The Apollo missions for the most part were a success, with a few hiccups. The shuttle program wasn’t as bad as a plan as most think because it was implemented with the idea to recycle everything from the launch including the rocket boosters. NASA just got away from racing to the moon because we already been there done that. The shuttle program also helped NASA maintain satellites that were crucial to understanding our universe. However, with Orion’s new parachute system (that enables it to be recovered on land just as on water) and to be reused up to 10 flights, it seems that NASA has truly combined the best of both worlds. I don’t know if you can tell but I’m excited to be here.

…or fought over.

The Outer Space Treaty says governments cannot claim ownership of the lunar surface and that stations and installations on the moon shall be open to others. The Moon Agreement builds upon the Outer Space Treaty but also says that any natural resources found on the moon are part of “the common heritage of mankind” – in other words, they must be shared.

If we are planning on building a base there and to mine for such elements, then the I guess the time allowance is justified.

If China thinks they are going to gain superiority over the US space program for doing something we did 40 years ago, well that’s just plain silly.

Are we planning on using it as a potential rest stop? I’ve heard a lot in recent years about buying land on the Moon for future business development. I wonder how far we are from realizing those kinds of goals.