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This is going to be a bit of a grab-bag of a post, but please bear with me.

I was clearing out my accumulated news feeds, when I came across this piece from Reuters:

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) - The next mission to land a man on the moon will take place in 2015 at the earliest, the new chief of the United States' space program said on Monday, adding the mission could be followed by the construction of a multinational space station there.

Okay. This is how far we've fallen, in terms of space capabilities: President Kennedy announced his goal to land a man on the moon May 25th, 1961. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in the Sea of Tranquility July 20th, 1969. Let's round to 8 years to land a man on the moon for the very first time - while having to invent about half of everything involved from scratch. NASA now estimates that they could do it again.. in ten years. Wow. Way to go, NASA - it now takes you 125% of the time to do something you should already know how to do.

On top of my disdain for NASA, I have even more disdain for President Bush. Kennedy, not knowing whether or not it was even possible, committed his country to a magical goal with a deadline less than nine years away. Bush, on the other hand, announced his goal January, 2004. The fact that Bush was unwilling to commit to a similar deadline showed more than a year ago that he wasn't serious about this goal. If he had wanted to beat Apollo's record, he'd have to commit NASA to landing a man on the moon by March of 2012 - just in time for President Cheney to be re-elected. Instead, NASA says to not expect a repeat of Apollo 11 until 2015 at the earliest, and possibly as late as 2020.

Anyway, in preparation for that little bit of snark, I actually read Kennedy's speech to Congress in which he said:

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

It's actually a fascinating speech - it gives you an idea of how easy we have it in the 21st century, and how woefully inadequate the current occupant of the White House is. Kennedy, leading a country essentially engaged in a global war against the Soviet Union, spends most of the speech not talking about space exploration whatsoever. Instead, he deals with America's struggle against the Soviets, and the need for America to help develop the third world to combat the Soviet menace.

The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe--Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East--the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny, and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.

And theirs is a revolution which we would support regardless of the Cold War, and regardless of which political or economic route they should choose to freedom.

For the adversaries of freedom did not create the revolution; nor did they create the conditions which compel it. But they are seeking to ride the crest of its wave--to capture it for themselves.

I would definitely reccomend reading the whole speech. It is, however, kind of depressing - the contrast is marked, to say the least.