Remember Alan Shepherd's flight - when we had a REAL space program

[LongTomH]

Now we have stunts like the Red Bull 'skydive from space' and companies competing to send multi-millionaires on joyrides to the edge of space!

[Arkansas Granny]

1. I remember it well. Teachers brought tv's to their classrooms and we watched the whole thing

from liftoff to splash down and all the commentary before and after. I especially loved CBS coverage with Walter Cronkite.

Back in the late 50's, our local radio and tv stations would broadcast the schedule when Sputnik was going to pass over our area so people could go watch the night sky and try to spot the little blinking light as it passed. It seemed that everybody was interested in space.

[pipoman]

2. We do have a rover on Mars digging holes. ..

[arcane1]

3. We still have an awesome space program, we just don't waste money sending people out there anymore.

[AScott]

4. We also don't send many robots out there, either.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/03/05/nasa_budget_2015_more_cuts_more_politics.html

Planetary Science: cut by $65 million. That last one is almost a victory, given how the White House has tried to eviscerate planetary exploration over the past few years. But don’t be fooled; these cuts would hurt. A lot.

[cpwm17]

5. Yes, men in space is a wasteful gimmick

Science fiction fantasies of men traveling through space should remain in the fiction department. Earth is where mankind belongs. We evolved here over billions of years and any place we could ever visit is highly unlikely to ever support our kind of life.