The United States will lose its leading role in space unless it spends more money for research and development and for recruiting young engineers, government, military and industry officials said on Tuesday. NASA and the U.S. military also needed to work more closely to make the best use of scarce resources, the officials told the 12-member Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The congressionally mandated panel, which is due to make policy recommendations to Congress and President Bush by Nov. 27, is holding a series of meetings aimed at assessing the overall health of the aerospace industry. Tidal McCoy, chairman of the Space Transportation Association, told the panel that NASA’s $15.1 billion proposed budget for fiscal year 2003 was “a going-out-of-business budget for any hope of advanced space goals.”