I am frankly surprised at the vehement reactions here against space travel.

[WilliamPitt]

I understand the arguments against it - the money can be used for other priorities, and the military angle is indeed troubling - but still. I grew up in awe of space travel, thought the Hubble Telescope was one of the single most important creations American science and technology has ever devised, and I'm a big fat fan of John F. Kennedy, who championed space travel (as a front in the Cold War, to be sure).

Maybe I'm naive, but I have always believed space travel and exploration to be fundamental and important. Space is what's next; we left the caves, spread ourselves across the land, learned to sail the seas, and then the air itself. There is so much we can learn and do, and we have to go there to be able to do it.

I don't know. Reading all the anti-space comments here really bums me out.

(/opinion)