Well, son, I know you wanted to go to the moon and all, but it looks like that’s just not going to happen. In the meantime, I guess you’ll just have to be satisfied with a sojourn on the International Space Station. It seems that Bush’s moon initiative kind of fell through, and Obama and his advisors have decided not to throw good money after bad. Instead, they’re putting $6bn into extending the life of the ISS and encouraging private spaceflight. Still sounds good to me.
The original plan was to return to the moon by 2020; unfortunately, it seems the project was underfunded to the point where it might not have happened by 2030. And what’s more, there wasn’t enough money to do both the moon and keep the ISS project going. It had to be one or the other, and let’s face it: the ISS is already out there in space, working like a charm, and the moon R&D is still working on a rocket to replace the one we used in the 60s.
It’s a little sad — we like the moon — but at least we’re just changing priorities and not abandoning space altogether.