(MCT)

   NASA scientists experiment with a laser, probing the energy of atoms in very excited states, to improve the use of lasers in space. That was the '60s, when aerospace engineers, too, were in very excited states, especially when compared with today.

   People since at least the 1990s have argued whether this nation should fear a shortage of engineers. But even those who believe there is an abundant supply in other areas will admit the situation isn't exactly rosy in the aerospace field.

   A number of factors are at play, including American students' lack of interest in math and science careers. Add to that the increasing number of baby-boomer engineers who have reached, or are near, retirement.

   Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine says that by 2008 one in four U.S. aerospace workers will be eligible to retire. These are the men and women inspired to science careers by President Kennedy's vow to reach the moon and the stars.

   Apparently, space flight today is for fogies. Today's generation of engineering students is more inclined to seek employment in what they consider the hotter industries. A recent study showed that among freshmen engineering students, about 20,000 chose to major in computer engineering; 12,000, mechanical; 10,000, electrical, and fewer than 3,000, aerospace engineering.

   Maybe students find it difficult to be inspired by a different President, who three years ago talked about going to the moon and the stars, too. Since then, President Bush has committed such miserly amounts to NASA that its ability to fulfill those new missions has been compromised.

   "I'm afraid that NASA is headed for a train wreck if things don't change," U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., said Thursday in discussing the space agency's money crunch. Gordon, chairman of the House science committee, said NASA's five-year budget plan had been cut by nearly $2.3 billion since Bush's January 2004 speech.

   Concern has also been expressed by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chair of the Senate's science appropriations subcommittee. She says the president's three percent increase for NASA in fiscal 2008, raising its annual appropriation to $17.3 billion, simply isn't enough.

   Mikulski said NASA is still owed $2 billion it cut from other programs to upgrade the space-shuttle fleet following the Columbia accident in 2003. She and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, want Bush to call a "space summit," as his father did as president in 1990, to discuss NASA's budget and its future.

   Perhaps it will be up to the next president to light a new fire in the minds of America's young people, so that more of them will seek careers as scientists and engineers. Funding NASA at levels where it doesn't resemble a beggar seeking crumbs during budget hearings might help attract more students to aerospace.

   America has also relied on foreign students to meet its various engineering needs. But with many of them finally seeing the possibility of lucrative careers in their homelands, China and India, in particular, that is becoming less of an option.

   Last year, President Bush signed a bill that establishes a national task force whose mission is to come up with a blueprint to increase the number of U.S. students interested in science and engineering careers. That's a good step, but more White House leadership will be needed to spur education, industry and other government leaders to action.