In Reply to: USA lost the space race this week. posted by tubebuilder on March 10, 2011 at 04:40:36:
. . . was always largely a publicity stunt, to convince taxpayers of the value of the scientific research conducted more effectively by unmanned satellites, probes, space telescopes, etc.
Only a small percentage of the general public has ever been capable of understanding the science of space research, or the importance thereof, but everyone can relate to an adventure story with a hero.
Trouble is, the once extraordinary became prosaic with habit, and we became jaded. Once heroes like Shepard and Glenn and Grissom and Armstrong (or Gargarin or Tereshkova, if you're Russian) were household names, but now maybe one person in several thousand can name the astronauts staffing the space station.
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Follow Ups
- The manned space program . . . - caspian@peak.org 21:43:08 03/15/11 (7)
- RE: The manned space program . . . - DrChaos 12:21:11 03/16/11 (5)
- RE: The manned space program . . . - pictureguy 23:38:49 06/28/11 (0)
- RE: The manned space program . . . - pictureguy 00:06:50 04/12/11 (1)
- RE: The manned space program . . . - DrChaos 01:58:08 04/12/11 (0)
- Which one?. - Deckers1 11:28:12 03/22/11 (0)
- True. But the Air force is making another shuttle. - Deckers1 19:35:49 03/20/11 (0)
- RE: The manned space program . . . - tubebuilder 06:03:56 03/16/11 (0)