Liftoff of STS127 from KSC was successful this evening. After six attempts, Endeavour is headed for the Space Station to deliver the Japanese Kibo module which will give the Station additional space for conducting science experiments.
I realize there are a lot of nay-sayers out there regarding space travel, including the people who think the moonlanding 40 years ago was false. I'm not one of them. Space travel excites me, not just due to the fact that I work at a spaceship factory, but the benefits that we've reaped in the 50 plus years of Space travel are too many to mention here. That and it's an awesome sight to watch a launch, either live or on TV.
From a website called The Space Place dot com, where there is a complete list of spinoffs from space travel:
Some of the most frequently asked questions about the U.S. space program are "Why go into space when we have so many problems here on Earth?" and "What does the space program do for me?" These are legitimate questions and unfortunately not enough people have been made aware of the vast benefits the space program provides that increase the quality of our daily lives. Applications on Earth of technology needed for space flight have produced thousands of "spinoffs" that contribute to improving national security, the economy, productivity and lifestyle. It is almost impossible to find an area of everyday life that has not been improved by these spinoffs. Collectively, these secondary applications represent a substantial return on the national investment in aerospace research.
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