Earthbound in the Space Age

I just finished watching a documentary titled, "When we left Earth" the NASA Missions; and was reminded of the folly that will allow the decommissioning of the Space Shuttle in 2010 while it's replacement, the Ares1 Orion, is not scheduled until at it's earliest in 2014!  How will we service the International Space Station during this lapse?  We will pay Russia to take our mission specialists, astronauts, and others in their own aged space vehicles.  Why this is a folly is that it impacts on our technological growth, and further degrades the next generation of hoped for scientists, engineers, and a home grown aerospace manufacturing industry.

Back when President Kennedy challenged this nation to reach the moon in a decade; this impetus caused the micro-miniaturization that created the home computer and all of the advances that brought us into the information age.  Funding this will promote good wage, next generation 21st century employment.  This employment and the creation of new industries that will advance

and expand the technology to end Global warming, alternative energy, and even a automobile that will end our dependence on oil!

We must support bridging with a refurbished shuttle fleet until a true new generation of launch vehicles not based on last century Apollo era hardware can be developed.  We must look to the future and fund one of our greatest native industries which will also employ new aerospace workers who can also assist in advances for Rapid Transit, and don't forget where solar energy came from!