The face of a burly, bumbling colonial explorer flickered across television sets across the United States that day in 1969. It was an event that meant much more than what was relayed. Everyone watched with admiration and fear the first steps on the Moon of Neil Armstrong, a humble earthly creature who never wanted to free himself from the atmosphere of his planet. But it is. And he was an American. As moon particles settled around the explorer and a stars and stripes flag was waved, a political victory appeared, although most viewers could not clearly see what was happening. JFK's space promises to the American people were fulfilled through the NASA program, and we let the Soviets, our scientific and ideological rivals, eat our otherworldly dust. On April 15 of this year, at the JFK Space Center in Florida, President Obama delivered a speech announcing a halt to all human spaceflight immediately planned and launched by NASA, approximately forty years after Neil Armstrong made that first not. You didn't know that's what he was communicating through the content of his speech: Obama was more concerned about a NASA budget increase of six million dollars, allocated to robotic space missions and technological advances (Obama np) . But the heart of the problem, for the scientific community and the commentators who listened to it, was the end of American astronauts drifting in space at the behest of taxpayers. The reason for Obama's reduction in human spaceflight was largely due to the Constellation program, a vast effort to erect a lunar base by 2020 to serve as a pit stop in future missions to Mars, signed into law by the Bush administration in 2005 (Sutter np). The program of the pre-Obama administration... middle of paper... is Jobs at Michoud.” wwltv.com April 16, 2010. Web. October 1, 2010. www.wwltv.com/news/local/Obama-NASA-Plan-Cuts-Jobs-At-Michoud-90984639.html>.Pallone, Greg. “New NASA budget includes additional Space Shuttle flight.” Orlando News13. September 30, 2010. Web. October 1, 2010./september/156845/How-the-new-NASA-plan-will-affect-Space-Coast-economy>.Rodgers, Ben. “Scientist: Mars mission postponed for a century. » Jamestown Sun. April 4, 2010. Print.Sutter, John D. "Obama Budget Would Cut Moon Exploration Program." cnn.com. TurnerBroadcasting System, Inc., February 1, 2010. Web. October 19, 2010.02-01/tech/nasa.budget.moon_1_space-exploration-nasa-administrator-charlie-bolden-]nasa-programs?_s=PM:TECH>.Swanson, Alex and Leo Walford. “Robots from Mars...and God.” New scientist. 184.2444 (2004): 33.Print.