The piece is very funny, and it beautifully skewers the "safety at all costs" mindset so prevalent in US today, but I think in this case it attacks the wrong target. How many people seriously wants to stop manned spaceflight because it puts astronauts in danger? Maybe a few die-hard Naderites - but they probably oppose ALL speceflight for much more important (to them) reasons.

Everyone else knows that astronauts understand the danger and have the right to risk their lives. Most opponents of manned spaceflight see it as not worth the money, rather than the risk - i.e. that it fails a cost-benefit analysis. And the way manned spaceflight has been done in the US over last 20 years, I tend to agree. Is an orbiting laboratory with three(!) people worth $100 billion over 15 years? Only if you are convinced that ANY human presence in space is worth ANY amount of money. And this kind of attitude is no less asinine than the conviction that ANY risk must be eliminated at ANY cost.