[airborne]

I guess I expected the space program to advance more in the 40 years since we went to the moon.

What we have now is a great big disappointment to me.

[chimera]

Well, me too, for that matter. The latest issue of the American Heritage Of Invention And Technology magazine details some of the history of the construction of the KSC launch facilities in the 1960s, and the plans we had originally for a very robust and active program of lunar launches using Saturn technology and the innovations developed for that effort. What we have today is a pale shadow of those early dreams. If those initial plans had been realized, we'd have permanent bases on the moon and exploratory mission to Mars by now, instead of just circling the Earth and (just) sending tinker toys to Mars.