Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson has been campaigning for the continuation of space exploration and research for quite some time now. Sharp guy. When JFK said "We are going to put a man on the moon" it forcibly drove innovation and creativity, and pushed our nation to the forefront of the scientific world. Since then, we've become complacent, and let the rest of the world catch up (and arguably pass us) in innovation, and THIS lack of drive to innovate in his (and my) opinion is why the US is falling behind.

Just out of curiosity, how much useful life did the current (retired) orbiters have left in them? I was under the impression the current shuttle system was shut down because replacing the current orbiters would have been horribly cost prohibitive due to the production processes no longer being in place.

The thing that angers me about the general populace of the USA is the willful ignorance of the value of research and development. They look at NASA's budget and say stupid things like "Why are we bothering to spend so much money on space when we have so many problems right here on earth" with absolutely ZERO understanding of what prior space efforts have produced for their basic way of life. And when you look at NASA's budget in relation to other facets of the government, you see just what a drop in the proverbial bucket it is comparably.