[Totenkopf]

Originally Posted by mimartin

Even the California one makes sense due in large part to Ames Research Center in California and the Obiter has landed many times at Edwards Air Force Base. New York makes the least sense to me, however other than the Johnson Space Center what does Houston have to make anyone want to come here over L.A. or New York?

Was merely thinking that if I had to pick city for "touristy" reason, NY is one of most visited cities in world. However, Vandenberg AFB is also in CA. So, from a strictly space-related perspective, dropping NY for Houston shouldn't be a big deal. NYC already has enough to see w/o a shuttle.

I don’t just see it as the politicians have lost interest. Americans don’t seem overly interested in it either. Need North Korea or Iran to get interested in space; competition is about the only thing that motivates Americans.

I think part of the reason is that Americans get more excited about manned space travel vs a more scientific research mission. As to the pols, the NASA budget also seems like a perenial target of opportunity....no doubt for the aforementioned reason (insufficient public attention).

Next to last mission. The flight scheduled for June will be the last. He was already to be in Florida, so I guess going to the launch made sense logistically and considering Mark Kelly is commanding the mission (for those that don’t know Mark Kelly is married to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords).

That's why I said missions. Still, the obvious question is "what next for America's space ambitions?"