Until we can develop launch systems in a much shorter time frame, we will be stuck in the ever changing politics. Current system take three years to construct (no less design and test). The political cycle is 4 years. While we went from nothing to Lunar Landing in about 10 years, Aries will not launch for another 7....using much pre-existing equipment. It's not our engineering that slows us down, it's our desire. And like the frog in the water that is slowly heated, we will never realize what we have lost until it's too late.

Like the Spanish and the Italians before us, history will record us as a "once great country of exploration".