[SiliconKnight]

I would *love* to see Chinese presence in space. And India too, along with any other countries, but the Chinese are closer in that regards. And with the Chinese in space, who knows, NASA might just get a lot more funding.

Our country works best when there's a challenge. Look at the 60s, with the Russians launching of the Sputnik, and Yuri Gagaran, it lit a collective fire under our rear ends. Moonshot would not have been possible if not for another country challenging us, and out of the space program came innovations that people take for granted. Printed circuit boards, cyrogenic treating of metals (used now extensively in tools), advance aluminum fabrication techniques (used everywhere from soda cans to new cars), etc... all came out of the space program.

When you look at NASA - and what it used to be... think about it. NASA once upon a time are staffed by some of the best engineers, who strived to built the best they ever can. Look at the Pioneer probe - designed for an 18 month mission, that thing was responding to pings for *30 YEARS*. Now NASA's budget is slashed to just a shell of its former glory. Instead, we sink money into million-dollar a pop Tomahawk missiles, and build nuclear submarines with the firepower to destroy the entire friggin' world... at what point do we say, "Gee whiz, maybe we have enough, let's spend our money wisely?"