Free Republic

The moon belongs to everyone The best things in life are free, The stars belong to everyone They gleam there for you and me. --From the 1927 musical Good News Star-gazing may be free, but the Human Space Flight Plans Committee, a panel of luminaries and experts appointed by President Obama to assess the future of America's manned space efforts, has found that space exploration is not. The gist of the committee's imminent report: Our current levels of expenditure will not support a return to the moon, a journey to Mars, or much beyond keeping the space station operating. This...

The way we think about the Moon and the amount of money we are willing to invest in the Moon are tied up in how it appears in writing and how we emphasize it when talking. A capitalized Moon is rising. The Moon needs to move beyond the timid exploration we first saw in Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon in 1865 and remain saddled with 140 years later. Once the Moon is redefined as a place to enjoy and not just to explore, the money will follow with a capital M. As we change how we think...

America has begun preparing its next military objective - space. Documents reveal that the US Air Force has for the first time adopted a doctrine to establish 'space superiority'.

A veteran space program observer who recently represented the Bush campaign in a policy debate said the president is considering whether to continue U.S. participation in an international treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.