Great insight Eric. Thank you. Most folks in the Huntsville area understand at lest somewhat the real value of the space program. Compared with what tax dollars we spend on the various "social" and welfare related areas the space program is a bump on an elephant's backside. Yet the advances that mankind, including the "poor", receive are innumerable and not just "intangibles" either. Where would we be (poor included) without satellite technology? Our enemies would eventually have gotten such technologies that could have been used to dominate or destroy us. Yet we somehow stay ahead of those who would destroy the freedoms that American's enjoy. Space exploration is not much different than exploration or unknown lands hundreds of years ago or at any phase in human occupation of the earth. It is in our God-given nature to want to explore and learn. It is our destiny.

FC