I tell ya, it really does look like what we're going to get in DC is a Space Shuttle that's been left outside a chop-shop convention. I definitely find it sad to see these giants quietly shuffling (shuttling?) off to their final end, at least until I consider how incredibly expensive it all was. Then, then I think about SpaceX and Bigelow and the idea of a sustainable privately run space program, one not directly beholden to Congress's whims, and I take heart. The next generation will not so easily be cancelled, or held hostage, or frozen in the amber of a bureaucrat's fears.