November 1992 | Volume 43, Issue 7 When a rocket lifts off, it
lights up the launch area with a brilliant burst of flame and
then trails a fiery streak across the sky as it soars toward
orbit. But without careful guidance all the pyrotechnics will
have been for naught. That is, in short, what happened to the
National Aeronautics and Space Agency. Like a rocket, NASA
initially lit up the sky, with spectacular feats. But for lack
of proper direction from policymakers, the agency failed to
continue on a course that would clearly and consistently serve
the national interest. Instead NASA steered by a false star. At
the beginning, of course, few would have imagined that the
agency could go so far astray. Indeed, nearly two decades
elapsed before this became at all clear. Through the 1960s NASA
was running a grand project that had the near unanimous support
of Americans for a clear and simply defined goal: Put a man on
the moon. It was when that ended that things started to get at
once more complicated and less pur