NASA- Has it taken its final step?

Recently, the United States cut funding to NASA as a method of belt-tightening. NASA could see many more cuts like the 300 million dollar cut it is set to endure in 2013. So, is exploring the final frontier really necessary? Is NASA a thing of the past?First, it would behoove us to take a look back at NASA's origin.National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Acton July 29, 1958, to replace the ineffective National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics(NACA) and to respond to Russia's recent space-related breakthroughs. NASA's official inauguration was October 1st, 1958. They were established with the purpose of better understanding Earth and the solar system through space missions. Their other main pillar was that all space missions were to be conducted with the intention of peace, hence the phrase "We come in peace". Their first mission was titled Little Joe 1, which was created to test the escape system on the Mercury rocket. Unfortunately, after a premature launch, NASA's first mission only lasted 20 seconds, but that was just the beginning of many successes to come.

NASA has many pros to it, NASA has helped discover many different things about where we came from and how the universe came to be. Big Bang theory (no, not the show) was NASA's doing, all the pictures of Earth we have ever gotten from America, NASA, first and only people to ever walk on the moon, NASA. So, at least it's safe to say that NASA has turned up some good results over its 54 year life-span. NASA has also helped the country in many ways, it won a non-violent space war with Russia, it made the US the king of the final frontier. So, why is it all of a sudden so unimportant in the public eye? Well, NASA lost what little boys and girls dreamt of in the days of the astronauts, it lost the dream. The dream of being an astronaut, a modern explorer of the unknown, discovering all the universe has to offer. Now that we have covered almost all of what humans could possibly get to for a long while, peoples' interest has wavered. The dream of being an astronaut seems to have become outdated, there was little fuss over cutting funding to NASA in the public. And seeing as all science is driven curiosity that deals a major blow to NASA.  NASA may have lost 'the dream' but NASA's time is not yet over, space exploration in America will not become a thing of the past for a long time to come.