There's an elephant in the room, and it's the Moon.
I applaud the goal of returning to the surface of the Moon by 2024 because it provides needed urgency and focus.
Mars is the horizon goal and I want Americans to be the first to set foot on the Red Planet.
Simply saying 'yes' to all of them is not an adequate way to determine priorities.
The lack of planning evident so far, is no way to run our nation's human space exploration program.
We support NASA and we want it to succeed.
How do we ensure American leadership in space?
We are going back to stay.
We're not ready to go to Mars today because the risk is too high.
I for one actually welcome this challenge because it helps us to focus and galvanize to maintain our leadership in space.
I would argue that this is about American exceptionalism.