As the 30th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing carrying American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin approaches, the United States Congress is in the midst of considering new legislation that will chart the near and long-term vision of America's space program. Since Congress seems likely to pass authorizing legislation for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the first time in many years, it is in a unique position to drastically change the direction of the U.S. space program - a direction that too many have concluded is heading in the wrong direction.
American Apollo astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmidt launched their lunar module ascent stage off the moon on December 14, 1972. No one has been back since. In exchange for a hefty investment in the U.S. space program during the 1960s and early 1970s, the American taxpayers were promised a viable space exploration program that would eventually lead to a permanent manned presence on the Moon and eventually manned missions to Mars. In addition, American taxpayers were promised a viable commercial space industry that would pay huge dividends beyond the initial government investment in space. And finally, taxpayers were promised that space would remain a domain used to protect America's national security.
Today, America has neither a viable space exploration program nor a competitive commercial space industry. Indeed, the future American use of space now is in jeopardy. Since the last Apollo mission, the U.S. space program has been stuck in low-earth orbit. The U.S. Space Shuttle, for all its technological achievement, is approaching almost a quarter of a century in age. The International Space Station has so far proven to be an expensive, wasteful undertaking. Not one American space probe has visited the Moon in almost three decades. NASA waited 21 years to send another probe to Mars.
Meanwhile, America's commercial space industry has suffered from stunted growth due to NASA's monopolistic practices on commercial space launches. Today, countries like France, China, Russia, and Ukraine are taking business away from U.S. companies that are finding it hard to compete. And finally, for the first time since the space program began, the U.S. military's control of space and its many space assets now are in danger from attack by countries wishing to do the U.S. harm.
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