Whilst half the world appears to have terminal amnesia about the fact that today’s warfare can eradicate ever living thing on the planet in mere minutes, the more sane focus on experiencing a temporary escape from gravity and the wider consciousness and perspective that is part and parcel of such an endeavour. It’s ironic that Sarah Brightman had a huge pop hit in the early 1980s when those of us who were of school age may recall inhabiting a world that felt like the mushroom cloud could appear on the horizon at any time.
It’s also a little known fact that far from being a “waste” of resources [something we can claim we’ve honed to an alarmingly proficient degree in the 21st century] – on a more material level, space exploration actually generates $5 for each $1 invested back in the terrestrial economy.