Remembering the Fallen Space Travelers

On January 27, 1967, three astronauts died inside the Apollo 1 spacecraft in a fire during a countdown test at the launch pad. Seven died aboard Challenger when it exploded on January 28, 1986, and seven more died when Columbia broke to pieces upon re-entering the Earth's atmosphere February 1, 2003.

CNN.com - NASA remembers fallen astronauts

Human spaceflight has now focused on China, the third country to launch a human into space. It promises to send a manned mission to the moon in 2017. Bush promised a new US space program to replace the Space Shuttle (to retire it by 2010), and send a manned mission to the moon by 2020. The International Space Station (ISS) will be completed, but there are no future plans for it as of yet. It would make obvious sense to expand the ISS into a launching platform since the cost would be much cheaper. Consistent government spending on the space program is an uncertainty due to rising budget deficits and the need to focus on domestic (down-to-earth) programs. Going private seems the only way for US spaceflight to flourish.