USA manned preeminence is over Until Congress supports manned operations!

USA will not regain manned capabilities until 2020 or later-- Congress not supporting manned capabilities!

NASA Needs Clearer Mission, More Money (Source: Tampa Bay Times)
Exploring in the unforgiving environment of space will always present daunting challenges. That's why NASA's vision needs to be robust and clear. President Barack Obama vacillated early in his tenure before calling on the space program to envision a manned mission to Mars. But the money to pursue that lofty goal has not materialized. 

The focus instead has shifted to replacing the shuttle program with a new commercial crew capsule to ferry astronauts to the space station, thus relieving the need to buy seats on Russian Soyuz capsules. America's space conversation is sadly unimaginative, with more chatter about space tourism for billionaires than a real strategy for putting Americans into deep space. NASA's budget of about $18 billion is not expected to increase markedly before 2020.

Private contractors have long played a major role in America's space program. But NASA needs to be more of a driving force in setting this nation's agenda in space. There is nothing wrong with helping to build a strong commercial space industry; few states have as large a stake in that effort as Florida. But NASA needs to get a firmer grip on the many moving parts of the space program and better define what frontier America will explore and when. (7/2)

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