October 14, 2012 - Endeavour

[CaliforniaMama]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I find this stunt offensive.

Really? Why? (Sorry if that sounds really dumb and I'm missing something that is supremely obvious. My husband loves that I am so totally naive when it comes to politics and strategy - unless it's a fight with him, of course.)

I've been wondering for a long time - what DOES the space program do now.

I know we can use the money at home, but I think we have a responsability to explore space as well, just as we do the oceans. We need to map it and understand just what we are looking at so we don't get blind-sided by something we didn't think to look for.

[Lamplighter]

What did the space program do ?
... innovation to solve a big, new problem
... turn the routine over to private enterprise
... squabble with bean-counters over costs

What does the space program do now ?
... look for a big new problem (Mars), rinse, repeat

[xoxoxoBruce]

Because it strikes me as, in order to film a commercial, toyota interrupting the funeral procession of Abraham Lincoln.
It is a funeral procession, a funeral for the manned space program, which was one of the crowning achievements of the United States/science & technology/mankind, in the twentieth century.