I grew up with the space program.  My father worked for IBM's Federal Systems Division as a QC tech on the Instrument Unit of the Saturn V, and we lived just across the Indian River from the Kennedy Space Center from 1966 until 1974.

I am [i]eternally[/i] pissed off that the investment we made in the race to the moon was essentially abandoned after we actually [i]got[/i] there.

The Shuttle?  1970's technology.

The International Space Station?  Should have been orbiting by 1979.

Hell, we should have a self-supporting (even [i]exporting[/i]) colony on the moon [i]NOW[/i].

Instead, we have to reinvent the technologies necessary to get us back to the moon - a place we haven't visited in [size=3][b][i]THIRTY FREAKING YEARS![/i][/b][/size=3]

[snicker, snicker] You don't really believe that astronauts went to the moon using 60's technology do you? What a bunch of gullible rubes!

Its all PAN-AM's fault.. they went out of business.  

I agree 100%!!  The money in cheese sales alone would pay for years of space exploration.

SGtar15

I fondly remember the Apollo 17 launch - the only night launch of the Apollo program. Cronkite was downright misty-eyed aas he called the last mission to the moon.

I agree. The time is past due for a manned return to the moon, and a manned mission to Mars.

Nowadays, the term "space-age" refers to something long obsolete. I'd sure like to see that change.

The problem, in a nutshell, is the the Space Program is a GOVERNMENT program.  If FDR had announced a national effort to development TV by the end of the 30s, we'd all still be listening to big console radios. [rolleyes]