The retreat was started decades ago. It is coming to a close.<p>The US simply can't afford a 'war on terrorism', a 'war on drugs' and a space program at the same time.<p>Cool if you downmod because you disagree, but please enlighten me as to <i>why</i> you disagree.<p>The height of the space program was the commencement of the shuttle programme and the assembly of the space station (arguably an international more than a US endeavour, but without US participation it would never have happened).<p>But the shuttles are at their end-of-life and it remains to be seen if there ever will be successor.<p>They always were near-earth devices, some people would argue that the US space program ended with the last manned moonshot.<p>A significant reason for this is that the US has spent large sums of money keeping a vast number of people locked up in jail for minor infractions, spent countless billions abroad to try to influence events in Latin America and the middle east.<p>Not to mention two wars that might have been avoided by not empowering people that turned really bad (tm) when they slipped their leash.