Reply #1: Is anyone else a little depressed that the great dream of...

[Kutjara]

...manned spaceflight has degenerated into an orbital version of 'Pimp My Ride?' It seems like the only reason they're sending the shuttle up anymore is so they'll have something to fix when they get up there. Meanwhile, the Space Station has been scaled back to the point that it can't accomodate the number of people it takes to both maintain it and perform useful science, so again it's turned into just another expensive fixer-upper.

When I was a child in the late 60s, sitting mesmerized as humanity took its first steps on another world, I thought alot about what the future would be like. Never in my wildest imaginings did I think it would be about sanding gap filler and replacing batteries.