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I would not call the Shuttle progam a failure or waste of money. We have certainly learned a lot from it. But it is clearly time for the next step in space travel.
While I do hope they get a succesful Lunar program up and running there are a lot of hurdles to jump first. Are we really ready to build a 'permanent' moon base? As impressive as the ISS is it is not permanent. It has a limited lifespan after which things start to wear out and need replacing. The first modules are reaching that age so that although the ISS is only just being completed it is fast aproaching the end of life date. AFAIK it will be effectively abandoned at this time. How can we say we are ready to build a Lunar base?
A true permanent Lunar base would require the transport of enough equipment to establish mining, ore processing and manufacture capabilities to build and maintain the base.
Then you get into the food, water and air supply issues. Discovery of water on the moon is nice but again you need a significant processing plant to make use of it.
I could go on. The more you think about it the more there is.
In space program terms, getting back to the moon is a short term project of about 10 years. Establishing a base on the moon is a medium term project of about 50 years. Putting someone on Mars is still a long term project.
In the meantime an efficient launch vehicle is needed to continue robotic space exploration projects.
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