Gregg Easterbrook on the mess that is our space program. At one point, regarding the money we're pouring into the space shuttle and space station proposals, he writes…
At this point, the shuttle exists almost solely to service the space station, while the station exists almost solely to give the space shuttle a destination to fly to.
I think that's right. Not all that long ago, if you raised the question of why we were doing some of the things we were doing in space exploration, you got back the reply that you were mired in the past and didn't have a vision of the future. Maybe it's becoming a-okay to ask some of these questions now.