The argument that the manned space program essentially contributes to the world of innovation, invention, progress, and medicine is fatally flawed.
NASA hasn’t been fully-funded for decades. Bush’s promise to explore Mars was all talk and was never supported with the required allocation of tax money.
The real winner for innovation is the military-industrial complex whose funding underwrites many of the country’s best research institutions, research labs, and universities. Much of the money that has been budgeted for NASA has not been “clean.”
The entire space race was about geopolitics and the Department of War always maintained the yellow jersey.
Even today, the majority of space missions revolve around delivering payloads to earth’s orbit.
Manned space flight stinks of hubris and tradition.
When posed with, “I really can’t understand why more people are not more interested in the space program,” I answer, people haven’t been excited about space missions, astronauts, or the Space Shuttle in well over a decade.
