Since the launch of the Space Shuttle last year revealed the gross incompetence of NASA officials in repairing an un-reparable cosmic wreck, the US space industry as floundered. Today, the US lacks any reliable means to transport human beings into space. Because of this colossal failure, the future of the International Space Station (ISS) is now in doubt. No other ISS partner has the means to deliver the large complex equipment and infrastructure to the station, meaning the station will likely never be finished.

Lat year, NASA Administrator, Michael Griffin, admitted that the space agency had been on the wrong track, that wrong track actually began with the initial development of the Space Shuttle program in the 1970s. Even Griffin recognized that shuttle development was misguided. The Shuttle has never lived up to its promises, when first proposed. Indeed, the Shuttle is not reusable, it has not been a source of revenue for the space agency and it has never come close to the number of annual flights it was supposed to make. Last year’s grand total for shuttle flights, for example, was 1, hardly a crowning achievement for US engineering prowess.

Meantime, Russia serves as the only country with the ability to bring astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. Now NASA has signed a multimillion-dollar deal with the Russians, which will allow the US to continue to share space on Russian vessels going to and from the ISS. This deal marks the lowest point in NASA history. Gone are the days of Apollo or Gemini, now NASA is forced to outsource the very arena it was created to advance. Michael Griffin was 100% correct when he noted that NASA had lost its focus, while the unmanned space program, shows promise, manned exploration by the US is more legend than reality.

Part of NASA’s failure can be blamed on bureaucracy, mismanagement and poor decision-making. It can also be blamed on a sense of arrogance and complacency coming on the heals of America’s earlier successes. It can also be blamed on a lack of competition and the end of the space race and yet even with these explanations, that doesn’t account for the whole story of NASA’s fall from grace. NASA’s failure is also a failure of American culture, just as is the failure of public education in America. Americans simply have no interest in space or science. That has given way to a culture of instant gratification, pop entertainment and passive spectator sports, this decline is symbolic of our regression as we continue to slide, nations like China and Iran continue to advance. Hard work and perseverance are quickly waning in favor of handouts of sloth. A new day is dawning and without a sudden realization of what is at state, we may as yet awaken to a very dark day indeed.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/01/06/nasa.soyuz.flights/index.html