to the people who believe space exploration, especially crewed spaceflight, is unnecessary and wasteful:
does it mean anything to you that consistently, the part of being in space that has the most profound impact on astronauts has been looking back and seeing earth?
does it mean anything to you that the night sky, and space in general, is the one true chance for our species to explore and innovate for the sake of collaboration instead of competition?
does it mean anything to you that apollo-soyuz and its famous tunnel handshake, and collaboration for mir and the iss, were extremely public and visible images of collaboration between two rival superpowers that helped reduce the violent cold war fervor that was seizing the world?
does it mean anything to you that looking down and seeing the skin of the apple that is our atmosphere, seeing the masses of clouds just scattered like drops of paint, the fragility of the world, gives astronauts such an overwhelming desire to protect the earth that it's been dubbed the "overview effect" and is the reason so many astronauts become politicians after they retire?
does it mean anything to you that earth day, and the significant wave of climate activism that carries through today, both started in the late 60s/early 70s, when the apollo program gave humanity the first images of the whole earth as one thing? doctors without borders started around then too, and I think that had there been no earth pictures, there's a good chance it would have been called something like "doctors international."
does it mean anything to you that the pure technology development needed for spaceflight has so many benefits and applications to other fields that it rivals dedicated research in those fields? training rigs for activities in low gravity have use in rehab and physical therapy. calculations and mission planning were one of the first areas where computers could actually be used. before digital computers were a thing, nasa was actually one of the first places that employed black women, and used their work and contributions seriously! solar panels became efficient and ubiquitous in large part because there was no good way to power space probes in deep space. figuring out how to control rovers to navigate hazards with signal delays between 1 second and 24 minutes, has direct use in robotics, and especially for search and rescue, where people cannot reach hazardous areas.
and if you're wondering why we need space travel before we can have those innovations that objectively help us all, it's just a result of bringing tons of people together to solve a problem: inevitably, someone will see uses for it in another field. we have MRIs because doctors realized a technique used in particle physics could be used for their field. it's the same with space.
tl;dr going to space is good because it has massive repercussions for earth. the point is not leaving, the point is coming home.
(and by the way, fuck elon musk. from the bottom of my heart he can go die alone on mars. spacex made stage recovery into something truly revolutionary but the idea had been around as long as the idea of rockets existed (early 1900s). he simply has nothing to contribute to anything.)
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