WASHINGTON (AP) – NASA, the agency that epitomized the “Right Stuff,” seems lost in space and doesn’t have a clear sense of where it is going, an independent panel of science and engineering experts said in a stinging report Wednesday.

The one place the White House wants to send astronauts – an asteroid – doesn’t seem to be getting the engines firing at NASA, they said.

“More than two years after the president announced the interim goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025, there has been little effort to initiate such a mission,” said the report by a panel of the distinguished National Academy of Sciences.