[Thermalseeker]

This simply must be the end of the program.

It seems to me that the best people to make this decision are the ones who are flying, not the armchair quarterbacks at Time. IMO, we need to scale up our exploration efforts with a return to the moon and ultimately Mars in a public/private partnership. The technological spin-offs of our space program since Mercury have been enormous. Perhaps that is the problem? The average Joe who doesn't follow the program doesn't understand the direct benefits to mankind.

[Jim Noble]

There is a lot of truth in this article and comment.

:Our astronauts are like brave firefighters, always ready to go, always saying, "can do" with equipment that was obsolete the day it flew in 1981.

I am a passionate advocate of space exploration by man. If we made a national commitment of a scale like Apollo, the budget would be one trillion dollars.

I fear, however, that we are not willing to pay what it costs. That is not a reason to fly men in a system with a 1/75 failure rate.

Do it right, or don't do it.

[Pining_4_TX]

No, the best people to make the decision are the ones paying for this giant boondoggle, so it's time to privatize! Every time one of those things takes off, they should have a running tally of how much taxpayer money is going up with it, second by second. For the last several years, NASA and the shuttle program have been engaged in the important work of promoting global warming nonsense and doing experiments to see if newts will mate in space. If you've never been to the NASA "theme park" in Houston, it's one giant commercial to convince people to fork out more tax money for whatever NASA dreams up.

[Man of the Right]

Perhaps the average Joe knows that the principal benefit of space is launching satellites in low-earth and geosynchronous orbit -- a mature 1950s technology that has been refined through computers, robots and miniaturization and that should be expected to pay its own way at this point.

[Dave S]

The average Joe who doesn't follow the program doesn't understand the direct benefits to mankind

Name three specific benefits that have come from the space program during the last ten years, other than entertaining kids in grade school science classes or providing employment to otherwise unemployable geeks? Technology used by NASA is developed by Defense Department and others and eventually transferred to NASA, not the other way around. If you cant point to any specific benefits, how about a success at NASA during the last ten years?

[Pravious]

"The average Joe who doesn't follow the program doesn't understand the direct benefits to mankind."

I'm probably a little smarter than your average Joe, but I STILL don't understand the direct benefits to mankind of the program.

When I was a boy, space travel was very exciting and special, with the moonlanding and subsequent visits - but then they got into all this "space shuttle" nonsense, where it seems that they've done nothing but spend billions and billions of dollars over the past two decades on undefined "scientific experiments" - like antfarms, the effect of weightlessness, setting up a new telescope, blah, blah, blah.

To me, it all seems to be a colossal bore, and colossal waste of money.

Of course, that's all based on my perception of the program - but, as you initially said, that's probably the common perception. I'd be happy to hear about some real-world benefits all of this effort, money and loss-of-lives has produced.

[BOOTSTICK]

Yet another silly assumption, that the technology brought about by space travel, could ONLY HAVE BEEN DONE SO IN SPACE!. What rubbish.

[PresbyRev]

With all due respect, it is the average joe whose pockets are picked for the NASA boondoggle. Taxpayers, citizens, have more than a right and duty to demand accountability from their servants. Privatization ultimately is the answer.