Even though the Shuttle damn near bankrupted NASA with very little return, it is a sad day for space addicts.

Perhaps now we can set our sights on deeper space.

Depends upon how you look at it I guess: just repairing and upgrading Hubble has given us much more knowledge of the cosmos. Plus the thousands upon thousands of other experiments carried out, which will all provide information, and many may bear even more tangible results. Not to mention new knowledge about how to build and operate space ships and stations.

If perhaps we funded NASA differently (with more than 0.1%* of federal spending) we wouldn’t have to worry so much about breaking their bank.

I do agree that we should be setting our sights on more automated and robotic systems: the glamor isn’t as great as it is with manned flights, but it does seem much more practical.

* number pulled from memory, may be wrong, but it’s a trivial figure, given how much we happily spend on earth-bound military nonsense.