[Cincinatus' Wife]

Well, if NASA won't do it, they will leave the playing field and the Department of Defense will take over.

[DustyMoment]

IMO, the only way that the DoD will get the funding to (in essence) replace NASA is by exploiting the Chinese space program as a threat to the US.

Hollyweird has used this scenario to make several low-budget sci-fi flicks and, as it typically does, it appears that science fiction is becoming science fact.

The big question remains: how will we respond to the Chinese space program? I honestly don't believe that NASA is up to the task. They are too busy licking their wounds and attempting to regain the trust of the American public to plan any gutsy new exploration of space that takes US astronauts beyond the first 300 miles of the earth's surface.