Reply #42: We need the proper balance of spending for future space flights.

[flaminbats]

This means increasing funding used in expanding our knowledge of deep space..by replacing the Hubble Telescope with modern technology, developing a new launch vehicle to replace the space shuttle while making the fullest possible use of the International Space Station, and providing three times the dollars for unmanned missions to study Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons.

We must cut every dollar used for classified or unclassified military spending in space, and use all of this money for reaching peaceful goals in our civilian space program. Finally we must realize that landing humans on Mars, and returning to the moon are pipe-dreams only to be accomplished in the long-term future. But reaching these expensive goals now will not help us unless we first begin to reduce the national debt, and provide universal health-care for people on our own planet.

Let us never forget that in 1969, the year we landed men on the moon, the federal government actually had a budget surplus.