As you report, fifty years ago this month John Kennedy set the goal of getting to the moon before the decade was out (“Apollo Plus Fifty,” May 21, 2011). And the goal was gloriously met by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, albeit by Soviet methods. The launch this week of the space shuttle Endeavor, which was its last, marked the anniversary. From now on, America will have no way to carry people into low-earth orbit. Barack Obama has cancelled plans to revisit the moon. NASA is moribund. Obama’s “Sputnik moment” was ingloriously forgotten soon after the phrase was coined a short while ago. As far as space is concerned, America is going nowhere fast. But it is good to remember that Kennedy’s goal is of the same ilk. As well as elsewhere, going nowhere fast is America’s way in space. A glorious one-off is all America is capable of, anyway. Space is hard and vast, and it would take an entirely different way of thinking to explore, understand, and eventually inhabit. Rest in peace, Kennedy!