<Of course the subsequent shift of $ out of Apollo class manned spaceflight and into transfer payments to social programs has made US education SO much better and eliminated poverty.

On a gut level, I would agree with this viewpoint, but from a rational level, we have to remember that with government spending one person's vital, dynamic, and essential program is always another person's rathole.

I still have some hopes for the private sector when the "killer app" for space becomes apparent. My call is that it will turn out to be tourism, but that's just my best guess.

Private space flight may seem like a technological impossibility, but remember, in 1960 computers were for governments, large corporations, and universities, and were kept in air conditioned rooms serviced by men in white lab coats. Maybe not the best analogy, but ambitious inventors and entrepreneurs have a way of surprising us.