50 years of spaceflight

[Simon Bar Sinister]

50 years ago today, Yuri Gagarin blasted off into low earth orbit, opening the heavens up to manned exploration.

I thought we'd be much further along by now, but it's worth a bit of a celebration nonetheless.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Unfortunately a combination of not having the Russians to compete with and our obsession with non-reality (entertainment, myths, etc.) along with other lesser factors has contributed to the decline in interest in science & tech in general.

An easy way for rekindle interst in spaceflight might be is the docutainment mini-series From Earth To The Moon (Tom Hanks)

Which was actually one of its (quietly) stated goals.

[Vater Araignee]

It is not our obsession, it is what mass media decided was our obsession and parrents deciding that the boobtoob is the babysitter.

When a jerk that trows a ball through a hoop is presented as a hero and an astronaut its life just by sitting on a launchpad is a side note, what can be expected.

They constantly write for the lowest denominator, so it can not be hoped that higher function will come about by anything more than accident.