Ladies and gentlemen:
We were at this phase with our own space program, fully two generations ago.
TWO GENERATIONS AGO.
Now we are 17 trillion in debt. We do not even have a space shuttle anymore. And we send everything to China to make.
BRING BACK AMERICAN MANUFACTURING.
Now.
Remember the novels 2001 and 2010 (or the movies)?
A lot of people thought we would be there by now. Our trajectory was such that it really looked like we were going to start exploring the solar system with manned expeditions.
We’re reduced to using the Russians as a celestial Yellow Cab now.