Gettin' It Done - 36 & 35

Not sure what I think about cutting back on the space stuff.  An awful lot of good things come out of the pure science that has to be done to put people and hardware into space, so in some ways, it feels a little like Walter Mondale saying we should dump the Apollo program and spend the money on social needs.  At the same time, I'm not convinced we should be making it a big priority to put a permanent base on the moon.

35. Let Space Shuttle Die and Killed Planned Moon Mission: Allowed the expensive ($1 billion per launch), badly designed, dangerous shuttle program to make its final launch on July 8, 2011. Cut off funding for even more bloated and problem-plagued Bush-era Constellation program to build moon base in favor of support for private-sector low-earth orbit ventures, research on new rocket technologies for long-distance manned flight missions, and unmanned space exploration, including the largest interplanetary rover ever launched, which will investigate Mars’s potential to support life.

This one I can get next to:

36. Invested Heavily in Renewable Technology: As part of the 2009 stimulus, invested $90 billion, more than any previous administration, in research on smart grids, energy efficiency, electric cars, renewable electricity generation, cleaner coal, and biofuels.