NASA's 50th Anniversary

Celebrated in its Cold War infancy and sobered by the Challenger disaster in its twenties, NASA has lately been in a slump. The number of missions has dwindled. Budgets are tighter. And despite the agency's flashes of glory--such as the Mars Global Surveyor, which has sent back spectacular images of the red planet--the public doesn't seem to care much anymore about leaps, great or small, into space. How to reclaim that early energy? Perhaps a space-shuttle launch on July 29th, the date President Eisenhower signed NASA into being? Nah. Instead, there's a yearlong lecture series! And a closed-to-the-public gala! And panel discussions on the future of NASA--which we have to hope will generate some better ideas for getting us interested than...panel discussions.
--Kate Rockwood