Eulogies for the End of Manned Moon Missions

The president's proposed budget would slash NASA's moon program. Bloggers wax nostalgic.

Included in Obama's budget is a proposal to kill NASA's back-to-the-moon program. When the news broke, it inspired a bout of nostalgia among bloggers (mostly on the right) rehashing NASA's Cold War-ear achievements. It's also elicited remarks about America's "frontier mentality" and whether or not the nation's ambitions are regressing. Here's a glimpse of today's moonwalk reminiscing:

• Let's Not Forget the American Spirit, writes Lance Thompson at The Minority Report: "America started out as a frontier. Americans are drawn to the frontier. America needs a frontier...All we need is a goal. Personal, public, local, or national, the great achievements of Americans fuel our continued progress. Americans conquered the air, joined the seas at Panama, split the atom, and put men on the moon. We are more than ready for the next challenge-we eagerly seek it, and desperately need it."

• We Mustn't Retreat insists Charles Krauthammer in The Washington Post: "A vigorous young president once summoned us to this new frontier, calling the voyage 'the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.' And so we did it. We came. We saw. Then we retreated. How could we?"

• It's Been 38 Years, cries Jeffrey Anderson at National Review: "You know those great pictures of Earth from outer space, showing our planet suspended against the blackness, a beautiful blue ball? No one has seen that view since the Apollo program ended 38 years ago. No astronaut has seen that view since then. We've all just seen the pictures."

• It's Unavoidably Unsettling, writes Clive Cookson at The Financial Times. Although he sees the decision's merits, he can't dislodge his childhood dreams: "As a space enthusiast who grew up in the 1960s - and was sure as a boy that he would be travelling to the moon and back by 2010 - I have mixed feelings about the demise of Nasa's return-to-the-moon programme."