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"Never mind the fact that it discovered little of any use."

That statement bugs me everytime I hear it.

Let's not forget that the space program's pressure to succeed also forced new developments in material sciences (more than just Teflon!), communications, and especially, electronic miniaturization (everything had to be smaller and lighter to fit on those rockets) - discoveries that gave US industry a lead it has never relinquished. Not to mention the unquantifiable "inspirational value" of the project.

Billions well spent.

Irony on -I agree. Since the Times is so concerned, might the Brits now take up the mantel and send men to Mars? It would be magnificent. If they do not, then shame on them for not following up there concern with action.- Irony off.

It is always fun to tell someone else how to spend their money, especially from a morally correct position.

We need to get our asses to Mars and colonize it.

Before I shuffle off to Buffalo I want to see some wimpy liberal media-puke on TV whining about the terrible pollution in New Denver while a video plays on the screen behind him of a beer bottle and trash littered street in a bawdy Martian mining town.

Interesting article, but the author completely misses the point about Apollo.

Apollo was not about the Moon, not about exploring the universe, and not about boldly going where no man had gone before. Apollo was about, purely and simply, beating the Soviets to the Moon!. Once that goal was reached, we stopped going there. Put another way, what happens when you win a battle? You stop fighting it.

Space enthusiasts (and I'm one of them) cannot seem to comprehend this simple fact of life. We are doing nothing of any significance in space because there is no national imperative to do so. Thus, 30 years of stop-gap programs, the entitlement Shuttle, and make-work ISS.

Want to conquer the Solar System? Find something out there that'll make millions for somebody. Then, get financing and go do it. Quit thinking of Apollo as a template for the future -- it wasn't a plan to explore space; it was a battle in the Cold War (and one that we won, thank God!).

And stop moaning about our "lousy space future." The only ones responsible for that are ourselves.

Daniel Golden was the worst thing that could have happened to NASA. He allowed slick to squander billions paying Russia's obligations to the international space program. And that was just a small part of the overall corruption.

For now we need someone to get the financial house in order and then move forward with some real exploration.

Exploration in the past was done mostly for profit or to escape persecution. Until there's a real reason to explore space, we won't. Wasting money on NASA won't accomplish anything. The agency should be disbanded.

Commercial space ventures exist where there is a demand. Sea Launch launches commercial satellites for profit. My guess is that there will be an commercial space tourism venture independent of the ISS within 10 years.