Yesterday the space shuttle Discovery blasted off on its final mission into space. Two more space shuttle launches remain. The American manned space missions that started 50 years ago with Alan Shepard's 50 mile flight will soon end.

It was like yesterday when the most prized toy was a metal Gemini space capsule which spitted sparks out of its end and had a red blinking light. Every American child dreamed of being an Astronaut and we were regularly told at school we could do anything as Americans because the USA was the greatest country in the world.

In science class we would watch the Disney movie Man In Space and listened in awe as rocket scientist Werner von Braun told us about the amazing future we would have traveling to distant worlds. On Thursday nights the delight of Star Trek made the universe seem smaller.

Then on a hot summer night tens of millions witnessed the grainy image of Neil Armstrong jumping down to the moon on the screen of a black and white television. We eagerly rose the next morning to read with pride the three inch headline

MEN ON MOON!!!

Latter on the cracking scratchy radio account of Apollo Thirteens amazing safe return home was aired over school PA systems. In 1989 we all cried a tear or two when the shuttle Challenger exploded into pieces.

But that was then when America was great. We are told that there now is no money for the future of manned space flight. Americans school children are now told we are no more exceptional than any other nation in the world.. Money is now only available to be spent on regulation , bureaucrats, and public employee unions.

In the future if we are lucky we might be able to hitch hike a ride into space with the Russians, Chinese or Indians.

That is because as a nation Americans are now going no where fast.