Vivvo CMS 4.1 http://www.pri.org/ ©2010 Spoonlabs d.o.o. http://www.pri.org/files.php?file=rss_682409203.gif http://www.pri.org/ http://www.pri.org/stories/science/spacex-rocket-launch-marks-the-beginning-of-the-private-era-in-space-10013.html Science and Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 08:00:00 -0500 Tuesday's launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket marks the first commercial flight for a spacecraft bound to the International Space Station, perhaps the opening salvo of a new, private era of space exploration. Science and Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 14:50:27 -0500 Wasn't there just an announcement a couple years back about how Earth will not be sending more rockets to space? This is just what I was told,if anyone knows of what I am talking of,I could use some insight. A lot of fuel is put into just one of these rockets;it seems like a rather large waste. No sorry,it is a large waste. This is what is wrong with the human race. Why in the state that our world is in,would any sane and half decent person,want to spend hundreds of thousands,if not millions,of dollars just to spend a night in a hotel 'In Space'. There is Progress to be made in this world. And all these people want to do is feed the fires of our own destruction. Science and Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 16:41:28 -0500 Ivan, stop talking...just stop. It is misinformed people like you that are the problem. You can't make blanket statements like that when you obviously have no clear understanding of the intricacies of the space program. There are many justifiable reasons why we send rockets into space. In short, the space program creates new business by developing new technologies...many of which you don't even know came from the space program. You wouldn't even have been able to post your stunningly misguided comment online through your wireless internet connection if it weren't for wireless technologies developed for space communication. The space program takes the smartest people and uses them to solve the hardest problems on earth. The global economy eventually reaps the benefits. That is a fact. The problem is that misinformed know-it-alls get an equal say in the debate, when they should just sit quiet and listen when they don't know. PRI: Public Radio International