[rottndog]

Space exploration is the only thing that really matters. Anybody that doesn’t think that is thinking short term.

I think the point of the article here is that for the cost of the manned shuttle program, and manned space flight in general, we could have and can do exponentially more space exploration and research using unmanned technology.

The space shuttle was fun to watch, and there was a huge benefit as far as national prestige. But you can't argue that we have advanced the ball as far as we could have by other means.

[discostu]

There’s been a lot of unmanned exploration during the shuttle era. Given the fact that the shuttle was the cheap option, and actually had a lower budget than the original cheap option that was presented to Nixon, it accomplished a lot. It kept the Hubble going, helped build the space station, tons of science happened up there. Yes we could have advanced the ball further, but that option was removed when Nixon decided the space program was a Kennedy thing and pushed them to the cheapest way to continue. Trying to cast it as a complete failure and total waste of money is just plain silly.