What does the future hold for NASA and America in space? NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s statements on that question have shifted noticeably in the last few years.

In February 2010, General Bolden outlined a bold plan that would “enable our path beyond low Earth orbit through development of new launch and space transportation technologies, nimble construction capabilities on orbit, and new operations capabilities.”

Imagine trips to Mars that take weeks instead of nearly a year; people fanning out across the inner solar system, exploring the Moon, asteroids and Mars nearly simultaneously in a steady stream of firsts…. NASA will accelerate and enhance its support for the commercial spaceflight industry to make travel to low Earth orbit and beyond more accessible and more affordable. Imagine enabling hundreds, even thousands of people to visit or live in low Earth orbit, while NASA firmly focuses its gaze on the cosmic horizon beyond Earth.

But in August 2012, USA Today reported that, “NASA chief Charles Bolden focused on Mars as the ‘ultimate destination for now’ for human space exploration in a meeting with the USA Today Editorial Board.”

This represents a significant shift in NASA rhetoric. In 2010, trips to Mars were included in General Bolden’s vision, but they were part of a much larger whole. Today, Mars is the raison d’être. NASA’s vision seems to have come full circle, returning to the same obsession which has informed NASA’s long-range planning (publicly or privately) since the 1960’s.

This retreat is not merely rhetorical. It’s also visible in NASA’s budget plans and policies. The innovative technologies and capabilities which General Bolden spoke of in 2010 have been sacrificed to fund the Space Launch System (touted by backers as the rocket which will take NASA astronauts to Mars). At the same time, NASA has rolled over for critics of its commercial crew transportation program. This June, NASA agreed to a “compromise” agreement which “affirmed that the primary objective of the commercial crew program is achieving the fastest, safest and most cost-effective means of domestic access to the ISS, not the creation of a commercial crew industry.” So much for enabling thousands of people to visit Low Earth Orbit.

It’s unknown whether this retreat represents a change of heart on General Bolden’s part or merely bowing to the inevitable when faced with the brunt of Congressional opposition.

General Bolden is a hard read. He’s a fighter pilot and a Marine, but his behavior in Washington does not show the traits we associate with those professions. Fighter pilots are trained to be aggressive: to identify their objective, take the offensive, and press the attack until victory is achieved. “If you’re on the defensive, it means you’re losing.” Marines are famous for their Gung Ho attitude and refusal to back down from a fight.

Given his background, we expected General Bolden to take the offensive against his Congressional critics. That never happened. Perhaps he was under political constraints from above, but he did even put up a defensive fight, as we would expect a Marine to do in such a situation. His performance during Congressional hearings has been described as lackluster, at best.

General Bolden got off to a good start with the vision he articulated in 2010, but NASA needs stronger leadership if it is to remain relevant. “Domestic access to ISS” is not an aspirational goal. Neither is an Apollo-style flag-and-footprint mission to Mars. The United States stands at the edge of a revolution in human spaceflight. Within the next ten years, we will see hundreds, then thousands of Americans traveling into space on commercial vehicles. Most of that space travel will be suborbital, but there will be a growing number of orbital flights as well. Large numbers of people will be living and working in space, as General Bolden envisioned. The only question is whether NASA will be part of that revolution. If it wants to be, it needs an Administrator who is willing to fight for it.