On July 20, 1969, two American astronauts planted human bootprints on the gray regolith of the moon. It was one of the most impressive achievements in the history of Man, and it was recognized as such at the time. Yet, almost immediately, Con- gress and the White House took an ax to the budget of the Na- tional Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). There was no public outcry. While NASA, during the 1970s, sponsored a series of unmanned missions to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Sat...