A Short Question for NASA

Forty years ago today, Neil Armstrong took "one small step." He managed to do that on a rocket with computers less powerful than my cell phone and without the benefit of modern materials and construction techniques. So why can't we do it today? We're not just not making progress, we're actively going backward. When the (poorly designed from the very beginning) space shuttle is retired next year, we will have no effective space program.

For a seven year old kid who sat up for what seemed like forever waiting for something to happen as we watched the live broadcast of the first moon walk, it's incomprehensible that we've retreated from that vision. I'm not a big JFK fan, but the Apollo program to send a man to the moon was both a stroke of genius and a boon to our nation. Somebody needs to get on the ball and either get NASA back to what it used to be, or else get it out of the way and let private enterprise do the job. This is a sad anniversary for me because of how we have failed to advance from the 1960s. Shame on us.