FINALLY we are seeing a long, long overdue spike in interest. NASA seemed to be doing everything right. I will say that they, as well as the politicians holding the purse strings, have really screwed up over the last few decades, but with a surge of good PR and better outreach, NASA has started to do what it NEEDED to do all along: recapture the spirit of the people.
It's more important considering the U.S. once the leaders in the space field have fallen sharply and are now “guests” for other nations' space programs. However with a renewed push (partly due to China's ever-advancing program), NASA has started working on more next generation equipment for the years to come. One of them being Morpheus, the next stage in landers.
