It's important to be able to set aside cynicism, even if for a single hour, to enjoy technological achievements like this.

In orbit refueling is likely next year. The goal is to have two shots at a moon landing in 2028.

And a nuclear ion rocket scheduled for 2028 as well.

The current NASA administrator is doing a good job getting rid of all the things keeping NASA from doing things. (And at least after Artemis II, both parties in congress seemed to be on his side.)

Launches, Starlink, military provide cash. SpaceX needs to be profitable at least to some extent.

Those exploration dreams can only exist via the bankrolling of government contracts and riding bubbles.

Google is only able to fund Waymo, Quantum Computing, etc because of their questionably moral ads cash cow.

I don't know how long it will take, but I'll be here watching you seethe as they hit each one and you post another list.

All I want are bigger and more cleverly located space telescopes, a couple of more probes and orbiters around other planets and asteroids, and I want those Mars samples that Percy has been pooping over the Mars surface returned to Earth and studied in a lab. And maybe a probe to Alpha Centauri or exo-planet viewers that use the Sun’s gravitational lensing in the next 5 or 6 decades.

What actually is the point of all this? I'm not trying to be a snarky contrarian, I've never had any interest whatsoever in space, star trek, "what's out there?", so I genuinely don't get it.

I'm not trashing people's interests, obviously I am the odd man out in not giving a damn, I just don't see what we're trying to achieve when there are so many issues we can't even figure out on earth.

That's your reaction to watching this? Pretty sad.

I mean, you need to get money from somewhere to fund your dreams. If it's datacenters in space then let be it. They are pretty cool as well. It seems a lot of people don't like them on Earth.