America's Trifecta in Space: Odds Are We've Regained Dominance in This Domain, But Can We Keep It?
Over the last four years, America has come a long way toward regaining the upper hand in space. The Obama era’s timid aspirations and anemic funding for this important domain are largely a thing of the past. Instead, we have an active commercial launch sector, a reinvigorated NASA, and a reconstituted Defense Department. America led the world in space from the mid-1960s through the end of the Space Shuttle program. But even before the Atlantis flew that program’s last mission in 2011, the decline had started.
Source: heritage.org