Joan Johnson-Freese, the author of Heavenly Ambitions: America’s Quest to Dominate Space, is the chair of the National Security Decision Making Department at the U.S. Naval War College. She discussed the nomination of Charles Bolden to serve as the next NASA chief and contemplated the U.S. future in space with foreign-affairs columnist John C. Bersia.

WASHINGTON — Instead of looking for what the Obama administration accomplished in the first 100 days or what it might achieve in the next 100, we should focus on the longer term. The 1,000-day mark interests me far more than the sprouts of the administration’s early seeds.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Facing the old slave market from the sea, you can try to imagine what it was like to arrive here as a captive in the 1500s, with a future of forced servitude as your fate. You can try, but you can never grasp the totality of the horror. In those long-gone [...]