Watched some of the reruns of FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON on Sunday.... really brought back the memories of the nuns letting us watch the launches back in grade school. The whole space program has to rank as one of the greatest engineering achievements in the history of mankind. I'm not sure we could do it again right now even with our thousand-fold advances in information processing, communications technology, etc etc. People should never forget that we did it.
Just look at what the Johns say about the money spent in Iraq that could have been transfer payments in search of a vote. Despite of what he says to try and win some Florida votes, John F'n Kerry will sacrifice NASA in a liberal minute. Never mind that every penny of the NASA budget is spent on earth. Never mind about the technological advancements that are an offshoot of such an endeavour. Never mind that we're only just becoming aware of how close we are to a cataclysmic asteroid strike (Hmmm, a bunker buster applied at just the right point?). No, we need to turn out social workers, not engineers (gag!).