Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE:  Fun Quotations

Either spaceflight will be proven a successful revolution that opened the heavens to human use and habitation, or it will be proven an unsuccessful revolution that demonstrated in its failure the limits of technological advance …. If spaceflight does fail, its abandonment will represent a technological counterrevolution of great consequence, symbolizing the end of progress as it is understood today.

– William Sims Bainbridge, The Spaceflight Revolution: A Sociological Analysis

America’s space program was once a source of pride and inspiration. Now it is a shambles, its mission unclear, and its very existence at hazard.

– Stuart F. Brown, “Space after the Race”