There was a time, not so long ago, that the launch of yet another rocket would have been interesting – even exciting – to me. This one is going to take a look about to see if there might be other planets out there that could maybe possibly support life. If it finds some, then we’ll build yet another telescope to go look closer at them.

*yawn*

The pricetag – $600 million – doesn’t seem justified by the benefits. If we were to find one of these remote planets, then we’d know that perhaps there’s a planet somewhere that might possibly support life. Given the scope of the galaxy, and the millions of stars out there, I think we already know that. Which doesn’t mean that they *do* support life. So we wouldn’t know any more than we know now. And we wouldn’t be able to get there anyways.

I’m increasingly skeptical of the role of NASA. I still don’t have my flying car. I still don’t have my vacation home on the moon. The closest I’ve gotten is shaking Mark’s hand. Yet we continue to pump billions of dollars into the space program, which now lags far behind private enterprise in terms of innovation.

It’s time to stop this, and spend that money where it can do more good.