Pedro is the author of The Insomniac Coder and is also Pedro Javier's dad. He is a web programmer and aspiring novelist stuck somewhere around the DC metropolitan area.
Our shuttle fleet is a handful of flights away from getting shut down for good. The Russians have money for a war in Georgia, and for deployments to Venezuela, but somehow not as much money for space.
And the Chinese? They got their act together and are sending manned missions to space.
I was, still am, obsessed about the space race since I was a child but this is the first time in my life where the USA is falling behind.
What is happening in 10 years? Unless the Chinese do something really stupid, they will have even more money available to pump into their space program. We, if we get lucky, may have a new launch system, since the shuttle has to be scrapped.
Maybe we should stop manned flights altogether and use the UAV model for space exploration. We already walked on the moon, why send people there unless we are going to colonize it? Send frickin robots! If the vehicle blows up, all we lose is money.
Mars? Still 25-50 years away from any realistic plans.
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