The greatness of American space innovation falls to Obama's ego

The heartbreak of the last Space Shuttle flight

- Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh
Saturday, July 9, 2011

The last shuttle flight took off majestically with a plume of fire, disappearing into the clouds within forty seconds into its last man-made exploration, perhaps a fitting metaphor for its meteoric rise and fall. The crew consisted of three men and a woman, a precautionary move in case technical difficulties stranded them in space. It would cost the United States $63 million for each astronaut that the Russian Soyuz would return to earth. We have become mere passengers, taking a back seat to Russia’s leading role and military ambitions in cosmos.

It is a sad end to a program spanning decades of space exploration that has improved the quality of life for billions. Many inventions that civilization takes for granted are the result of NASA engineers and their quest for perfection.

NASA excelled in Earth Science, Planetary Science, Astrophysics, and Heliophysics. It encompassed Aeronautics Research, Space Technology, Space Exploration, Space Education, and Space Operations.

According to Erik Sterner, NASA’s former associate deputy administrator for policy and planning, NASA’s budget for 2011 is roughly $18.5 billion, 0.5 percent of a $3.7 trillion federal budget, as much as Americans spent on pet food in 2010. “At the height of the Apollo program, NASA consumed more than 4 percent of the federal budget. In the 1960s, that was a lot of money. Today, it’s a rounding error.â€