I was 17 when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon, and I ditched work (as a dishwasher) long enough to race home and witness it. I remember gazing at the moon in awe that week in July, imagining the adventures to come.
Almost 35 years have passed, and the "adventures" have amounted to a couple robots on Mars, a few camera-equipped satellites zipping through the solar system toward eternity, and the Space Shuttle.
I'm not discounting the accomplishments of the space shuttle program, but I had little doubt in my mind back in 1969 that Star Trek, or something like it, would become a reality in my lifetime.
I guess I'll just have to get over it.
Ah, but great and wonderful things have been accomplished since then. Yeah, I remember thinking there would be "moon stations" where we would go to vacation some day, but attention was turned elsewhere. It is so vast out there that no matter how fast we progress it will just be touched around the edges in one lifetime, or ten.
A lot of the pressure to advance was lost when the USSR collapsed. Perhaps with China breathing down our necks we'll once again feel the competitive heat.