Space/Science — HabitableZone

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re: Public's interest
Raoul — (archived)

Humans had been in orbit for 20 years when STS1 lifted off for the same orbit, and yet there was lots of excitement!
Then every shuttle flight until end of 1984 had been an improvement in some way to the previous ones. After, it stagnated, except for the HST repair missions and the first space station dockings.
What the public is bored with is the repetitious character of the flights.
Going back to the Moon will require preparations, then actually going there, then preparing for several long durations missions, then preparing for Mars, etc...
There should be a lot more variations and improvements than there have been during the last 20 years.
Apollo 15 was a great improvement from Apollo 14 and only 7 months separated both flights. I remember feeling it in the news, the TV programs, the magazines, etc. Also, Every single Apollo flight was followed by TV stations around the western world more extensively than operational Shuttle flights. The only exceptions are when a national astronaut is going up in space (and when there's a tragedy).
Bush's space initiative should make it a growing process and it might perhaps involve fewer flights per year and fewer astronauts too.

Raoul

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