I tend to agree with you RadarRedux. I watched the breifing and the testimony as well, and came away with the same positive feeling. I came away with hope that the VSE is something that the Congress does want to fund, and does want to succeed. In fact, members of the committee stated exactly that, that trhey wanted Dr. Griffin to succeed and NASA to succeed. It is not difficult to see in that, they want the VSE to succeed. There probably will be difficult times ahead, but the overall vision of the spacw program has changed. Whether it happens quickly or slowly, depending upon the yearly budgets, the programs that NASA will undertake in manned spaceflight will be oriented toward the implementation of the vision outlined January 2004. <br /><br />Frankly, I am just not understanding where the negative posts, negative articles, and predictions of the death of the VSE is coming from. From all of the testimony, briefs, and from the House and Senate approving a NASA appropriations bill which endorsed the VSE as US national space policy, I would think that there would be quite a bit more hope out there. It is leading me to the conclusion that there are, in fact, anti-manned space advocates pushing that agenda on this board, and on NASAwatch.com. If you do not like space exploration, and do not care about or want a return to the moon, humans on mars, or a manned space program, why are you here? Seems to me, that is what all of the negativists are pushing on these boards lately...I don't see any real alternatives cominf from these posters to accomplish manned spaceflight goals, just venom toward the shuttle, ISS, and the VSE.<br /><br />