Idea of the Week: Returning to the Stars.

This week Two United States Astronauts, with a Russian Cosmonaut, launched into space to rendezvous and relieve the crew on the International Space Station. Unfortunately, American Astronauts, since the Shuttle program closed, have been routinely hitchhiking to the space station and back on Russian Soyuz Rockets. While that is not wrong, it is somewhat depressing that the country that took humanity to the Moon and started the shuttle program did not have a ready replacement vehicle to take us to space when the Shuttle Program ended. Although,  there have been private initiatives led by notables like Richard Branson and Elon Musk to launch their own version of latest rocket technology which is impressive, the United States as a country has been slow to recapture the enthusiasm for manned space flight on a large scale. Even China has made strides in its program that rival what we have accomplished lately. In fact, a person can make the historical case that enthusiasm for space flight has waned since the end of the space race in the late 1960's and early 1970's. While there have been advances and achieved milestones like the space station, the Viking and Voyager probes,  and the largely successful shuttle program, the dreams of landing people on Mars or exploring the outer reaches of the Solar System have not gone according to the desires of early enthusiasts. The United States appears to be set to test its new Saturn Rocket which is supposed to take a crew to Mars. One way to show The United States as a global leader is to lead the way in space exploration. Instead of resurrecting dead industries, this would be a better way to make America Greater Again.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/03/23/soyuz-spacecraft-with-crew-of-three-docks-with-space-station/

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/03/23/atlas-5-rocket-assembled-for-first-mars-mission-launch-from-vandenberg/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3gT2QZaeao

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/richard-branson-reveals-virgin-galactic-s-latest-launch-plans-ncna812746

https://phys.org/news/2018-01-scale-china-space.html