[BobL]

“Personally, I would have killed the Space Station following the Challenger accident, and placed the savings into the return to the moon and on to Mars.”

...but do you really think that the same Congress that would have killed the Station would give a rat’s boutruss about going to the Moon and Mars?

In other words, the money would have simply gone into Section 8 (see Google).

[zaphod3000]

The term Section 8 refers to a category of discharge from the United States military for reason of being mentally unfit for service. It also came to mean any serviceperson given such a discharge or behaving as if deserving such a discharge. LOL

Really, I know what you mean by Section 8 . . . I just kept thinking of Cpl. Klinger in MASH.

Setting a goal of missions to the Moon and Mars would have (hopefully) re-caught the imagination of the public. Unfortunatly, with all the distractions of contemporary society, I don't think that will happen (unless they turn the space program into a reality show).