Today many lunar landing advocates must feel the same way as Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell as he pasted by the Moon failing to fulfill his dream of walking on the lunar surface in the pursuit of science.
With the next federal budget to be submitted by the President February 1, 2010, there will be no human return to the Moon in this decade leaving potentially ten thousand talented NASA space workers scrambling for private sector NewSpace jobs in the proposed $6-billion commercial space launch program, potentially with future American astronauts.
The last time American astronauts left Earth orbit was aboard Apollo 17 in 1972. It is now unclear how many years - even decades - it will be before American astronauts will be on an Earth departure trajectory again as the President and the Congress chart the course ahead in space.
Most of the children of Apollo will not be around to bear witness to the second return to the Moon by American astronauts. The best hope for a human return to the Moon in the decade of 2020 may now rest with the Chinese. Nonetheless, a new era is opening in American space with the commercial space launch sector.
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