everything should have some purpose. TEA party criticized many science researches, such as one on fruit flies. I certainly can see their ignorance on such issues.

but maybe astronomy is different, i fully understand its importance to our knowledge about outer space, but i fail to see its economic benefit for a long long time, some say new energy source, such as hydrogen in the moon, but i guess even they know it's just a fantasy, like hydrogen fusion.

on the other side, there're just too many evidence nasa is wasting money, a recent report just described how an initially estimated 500 million $ project ballooned into 6 bn and still counting.

stopping shuttles is the 1st step on the right track, but we need to see more. how about let private business take car eof outer space exploration?