A goal to strengthen America's advantages in space, namely to build an advantage in deep space exploration could have been articulated as the overriding mission. The President could have said:
1. America will become the leader in manned exploration beyond the lower earth orbit.
2. To get there, the U.S. will need to develop reliable and safe technology.
3. A critical ingredient will be a suitable rocket.
4. That rocket will be completed and used for its first trip within a decade.
5. Successful attainment of that step will provide a foundation for further progress.
The goal would have been specific. There would have been focus on a pivotal early step. A specific deadline for the early outcome would have been established. It would be clear that the outcome marked a step along a longer journey.
The speech did not contain such clarity. There is little doubt that the President is committed to manned space exploration. But setting a goal for leadership is a bolder pronouncement than affirming a commitment to manned space exploration.
With respect to the rocket, he declared, "And we will finalize a rocket design no later than 2015 and then begin to build it." Although that is well-intended, it is far from a concrete commitment to success. After all, the troubled F-35 fighter jet has passed design and has been in the building phase for a number of years. To date, all the U.S. has to show for it is delays and cost-overruns.
A commitment to complete and launch the rocket would be much bolder. There would be the kind of sense of urgency that cannot exist under a more limited commitment to settle on a design and then to begin building the rocket.
In sum, the biggest issue concerns the lack of concrete outcomes. It is far easier to suggest that one will start a process than to pledge to complete it. There are abundant examples where an absence of commitments led to insufficient progress toward concrete outcomes. The rebuilding on the grounds of the World Trade Center offers another example. No commitments were made in terms of when the project would be completed. Today, almost a decade later, very little has been achieved except in the generation of a growing litany of excuses for the failures to date. Whether in the private sector or public sector, an emphasis on starting projects is far less effective in generating progress than an emphasis placed on concrete outcomes.