A Scientific Response To The Cancellation Of NASA's Constellation Program

I agree entirely. To quote the great Daniel Burnham: make no small plans.

Bush made lots of expensive (and questionable) small plans regarding space exploration, and his administration was apt at spinning them as a great big plan (a great big plan that was never, in any way, funded to its necessity).

In reality, all that happened was nothing, save the expansion of the quasi-inspiring ISS (neither a space port nor a cost-effective scientific outpost) and the Hubble repair mission. And even the magnificently executed and scientifically invaluable latter, when one ponders it, is a failure to replace a great scientific resource with a better one. For over a decade, our government has failed to invest in a reasonable advancement over the space shuttles. Their proposed threadbare replacement, an over-glorified Saturn V rocket, inspires about as much awe as it does confidence.

NASA can do better; NASA will do better.