The last American manned space flight for possibly many years will take place in June when the Shuttle makes its last launch to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.It was just 50 years ago this Tuesday - a blink of an eye in historical terms - that the Soviet Union beat America to the goal of putting a man in space. Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to go into orbit around the earth and come back safely - a feat that galvanized the American space program, urging it to greater efforts in seeking to win the ultimate race - man on the moon.Does America need such lofty goals again in order to reach out and touch the stars?AFP: A successor for the 30-year-old shuttle program is not officially expected before 2015, but NASA's chief technologist has admitted it could be a decade before an American space capsule carries astronauts again.The next generation of US space flight will be led by the commercial sector, which has been encouraged by the US government to pursue...(Read Full Post)