Mars or Bust - Is America's Space Programme Doomed?

Published: Jul 10, 2005
Source: www.guardian.co.uk



This week's launch of the Discovery space shuttle is the first since the horrific crash of its predecessor, Columbia. Is America's space programme doomed?

Sometimes words are superfluous. An image is enough - like the one displayed on giant posters on auditorium walls throughout the Johnson Space Centre, near Houston.

They spell out the aims of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) in stark and unequivocal terms. A shuttle takes off in a plume of flame and smoke; in the background Earth's blue orb hangs in space; behind is the moon; and beyond that is a red planet, its surface riven with canyons. You get the point. America is going to Mars.continue..