On November 1st the Chinese launched an unmanned spaceship into orbit. This is a test run for an eventual manned mission to build a permanent space station. What will this mean for the rest of us? Well, to understand that question let’s look at where the U.S. and Humans in general stand as far as space travel is concerned. The U.S. shuttle program is discontinued, this means that we no longer have the resources to put a man in orbit, we need the Russians to shuttle our men to and from the ISS. The last time the U.S. seriously considered going back the moon was in late 1985. At the time they wanted to build a reusable Lunar Lander to compliment the space shuttle and establish an outpost on the moon by the year 2005. NASA was recently given an opportunity to partner with the European Space Agency to build a ship to reach Mars by 2020 with a 5 billion dollar budget increase. NASA turned down this opportunity, that means that the ESA lacks the physical capabilities to reach Mars and NASA lacks the willpower. Several major experiments are planned for the near future by the private industry as well. One will test if life is capable of traveling from planet to planet by attempting to grow microorganisms on Mars’ moons (this program will be launched on Russian rockets). Virgin Airlines successfully tested a private spaceship that would allow tourists to experience near earth orbit. However, despite the successful test the program is yet to be completed on time and is 2 years overdue. The ISS itself is still incomplete, pending several more launches by both the U.S. and Russia in order to install the remaining sections. Even though NASA discovered liquid water on the moon, a major advance in the practicality of a lunar base, no missions are planned. The 21st century once promised the people of Earth: space hotels, lunar mining camps extracting the incredibly valuable helium deposits, men on Mars, and unprecedented technological advancements. Unfortunately, not even the newly created private sector has been able to pick up the slack. Although to the common man a lunar base may still seem like science fiction, (although the technology is in existence to build such a base) the benefit of [more] practical space travel is overlooked. The most common misconception is that there is really not that much left to learn. On the complete contrary, there is over 40 years of deep space experiments backed up pending a launch date that many now fear will never come. The clear and shameful lack of money, willpower, interest, and ability to see the big picture has all but stopped any attempt at space progress.