Presidents and the space program: A history of unfulfilled promises after the moon landing
George W. Bush
President George W. Bush : Jan. 14  2004
Gene Cernan  the last man to walk on the moon  was in the audience at NASA headquarters when  President George W. Bush  took the stage and said that the country needed to strike out more boldly  going further than the space station in low Earth orbit.  Bush  recited what Cernan had said as  he  departed the lunar surface in 1972  promising  âWe shall return.â In  his  speech   Bush  promised that âAmerica will make those words come true.â
By 2008   he  said  âWe will send a series of robotic missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration.â By as early as 2015  manned missions would begin âwith the goal of living and working there for an increasingly extended period of time.â
Meanwhile   Bush âs plan became fodder for late-night television  which mocked an ambition for space exploration that a generation earlier had been venerated for achieving the impossible. Not that long ago the United States had reached the moon  but Americaâs space program had since had so many false starts and been subject to so many unfulfilled political promises that the critics were quick to pierce the soaring rhetoric and bring it back to ground.
â He  wants to build like a space station on the moon  and then from the moon   he  wants to launch people to Mars â David Letterman said in one of  his  monologues. âYou know what this means  ladies and gentlemen?  He âs been drinking again.â
â The president  has charged  us  with laying the foundation for America to maintain a constant commercial  human presence in low Earth orbit. There   we  will turn  our  attention back toward  our  celestial neighbors.  We  will return American astronauts to the moon  not only to leave behind footprints and flags  but to build the foundation  we  need to send Americans to Mars and beyond.â
âHouston   we  have a problemâ: The amazing history of the iconic Apollo 13 misquote
President George W. Bush : Jan. 14  2004
Gene Cernan  the last man to walk on the moon  was in the audience at NASA headquarters when   [TGT] took the stage and said that the country needed to strike out more boldly  going further than the space station in low Earth orbit.   [TGT] recited what Cernan had said as   [TGT]   departed the lunar surface in 1972  promising  âWe shall return.â In  his  speech    [TGT] promised that âAmerica will make those words come true.â
By 2008    [TGT]   said  âWe will send a series of robotic missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration.â By as early as 2015  manned missions would begin âwith the goal of living and working there for an increasingly extended period of time.â
Meanwhile    [TGT]  âs plan became fodder for late-night television  which mocked an ambition for space exploration that a generation earlier had been venerated for achieving the impossible. Not that long ago the United States had reached the moon  but Americaâs space program had since had so many false starts and been subject to so many unfulfilled political promises that the critics were quick to pierce the soaring rhetoric and bring it back to ground.
â  [TGT]   wants to build like a space station on the moon  and then from the moon    [TGT]   wants to launch people to Mars â David Letterman said in one of  his  monologues. âYou know what this means  ladies and gentlemen?  He âs been drinking again.â
â The president  has charged  us  with laying the foundation for America to maintain a constant commercial  human presence in low Earth orbit. There   we  will turn  our  attention back toward  our  celestial neighbors.  We  will return American astronauts to the moon  not only to leave behind footprints and flags  but to build the foundation  we  need to send Americans to Mars and beyond.â
âHouston   we  have a problemâ: The amazing history of the iconic Apollo 13 misquote