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Nature 416, 663 (18 April 2002) | doi:10.1038/416663a

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NASA needs 'the vision thing'

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Planetary scientists and astronomers may fare reasonably well under the US space agency's new budget-conscious chief. But in the long term, can NASA provide the inspiration to excite future generations about these disciplines?

Last week, 41 years to the day after Yuri Gagarin made humanity's first voyage into space, NASA's new administrator Sean O'Keefe went to Syracuse University in upstate New York to deliver his first major policy address. Flanked by two congressmen who chair committees that monitor NASA's activities, O'Keefe outlined a vision that was most notable, well, for its deliberate lack of vision.