After the space exploration program was shut down last year, it was unclear how the private multi-billion dollar industry was going to continue.
NASA’s 30-year shuttle program ended last July with the voyage of Atlantis.
The space shuttle Discovery has become a museum piece, turned over by NASA in mid-April to the Smithsonian Institution.
Private space exploration companies have decided they are going to try and keep on shuttling, even if it is at a much slower pace than in the past.
United Technologies Corp. has announced it will sharply scale back its role in space exploration by selling Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a manufacturer of rocket engines and liquid-propulsion systems that it has owned for seven years.
The space exploration cut was strategic for financial reasons.
But in the hearts of Americans it was just another blow to the ego.
How can America be one of the most influential and powerful nations in the world without a national desire to for humans explore outside of our world?
The NASA Constellation program was a huge hope for Americans.
Exploring the moon and Mars have been a topic of discussion for generations, but alas, these missions have been put on hold, at least for now.
NASA plans to drop nearly $310 million from the budget for its Planetary Science division in 2013, a 20 percent cut that affects future missions to Mars, lunar science, and the study of the outer planets.
Yes, the United States isn’t in a financially perfect situation, but is cutting the exploration programs further each year really going to solve the problem?
The morale of citizens isn’t at its highest, unemployment rates are still at horrifying lows, and people just want to see a positive change.
It shouldn’t be up to private companies to explore space.
But since the U.S. passed the exploration baton to China and India, it seems all those 8-year-old astronauts should put their dreams on hold, and the rest of America should too.
And, unfortunately, Newt Gingrich is bowing out of the presidential race on Wednesday so we can’t even dream about making the moon the newest state in the union.