Trump signs order reviving long-dormant National Space Council – Spaceflight Now

Thanks for the input. I have two friends that worked at the Cape as launch safety officers during the Space Shuttle days and they both bemoan the loss of NASA's manned launch capability. It's hard to believe that the US has not sent a single person into space on a US made rocket in over six years. Of course there are numerous civilian launch programs ongoing and in development, not to mention the Air Force's/DOD's space vehicle programs. The sheer diversity of missions and programs argues for a single national policy/goal setting organization.

When Pres Bush announced the retirement of our last shuttle, I was just going to work for NASA and at the same time, he also announced a new fleet to be built and back to Mars by 2020. I don't think anyone briefed him on what all that actually meant, because there was no money to R&D a new vehicle and build one. We did undertake it, but the program had stops and starts, and there was never anything in the budget line to actually build the aircraft. What followed was money for there to be commercially built prototypes to decide what should be built. Although I applaud the new Space Council to gather a vision about where we are going in space, the budget is once again about the same. Until the Pres & Congress want to put more money into NASA, or give enough money to a commercial firm to actually build a new vehicle, we won't get back to the moon, much less Mars. I do disagree that education is not part of their mission. Unless we get the next generation interested in space, I can see a time coming when no one will care.