Congressional Rocket Designers Out of Their Element

摘要

History tells us that America's national direction is often set by policy statements at the presidential level, and also that the execution of policies is entirely dependent upon the perceived seriousness of the policy statement by other arms of the government, together with the energy expended at the top level in follow-up activity. When President John Kennedy set a policy statement for the United States to send humans to the Moon, he meant it, and the follow-up activity was energetic by every measure. Not so the policy statement by President George W. Bush at NASA Headquarters on Jan. 15, 2004, in which he espoused a new course for the space program - a return to the Moon, and then a voyage to Mars.