Yes, the U.S. did some amazing things in the past, but the real question is what have we done since? From my standpoint it seems that progress at NASA since Apollo got ground down by bureaucratization and a lack of will on the part of the populace and politcians. We have turned our collective gaze from upward to inward. The country is full of short-sighted people who can't see beyond their own little lives. I've long held the opinion that the *only* possible salvation for our governmental space program (and our nation) would be a space race with another nation. Articles like this, with its pre-masticated "don't worry the U.S. is still #1" drivel does not help. We have rested on our laurels long enough. Time to take some risks, push the technological envelope, get some national pride back. Incidentally I don't believe that private corporations will make much progress because 1.) they are motivated by profit and such profits are likely to be so long in coming that investment will be hard to come by, and 2.) they are still subject to much of the bureaucratic overhead that NASA was.
I would say that China could easily surpass U.S. accomplishments within a decade if they wanted to.
