As I said before/below, Tyson knows what he's talking about and I agree.\

As an a-sider, I've realized (sp?!) that most countried, even communist ones, still hold space as an inporant vehicle for man. Whether they are truly going for it or not. They know that, that is our next frontier.

It's not difficult for Americans to return to the moon by 2020, or Mars for that matter. (Oh, darn it, she said it.) I agree with Tyson as far as foreign students getting an education here and then going back and actually doing something with it. Why shouldn't WE? China, India being there first would peeve off anyone in the U.S. He's right, why heaven't we? All of those visitors to the Air and Space Museum should have send a huge send off to law makers.

The peeve is that China is exempt to anything even remotely towards that Kyoto Protocol, but that's another story.

[How many times have we heard the mantra: “Why are we spending billions of dollars up there in space when we have pressing problems down here on Earth?” Let’s re-ask the question in an illuminating way: “What is the total cost in taxes of all spaceborne telescopes, planetary probes, the rovers on Mars, the space station and shuttle, telescopes yet to orbit and missions yet to fly?” Answer: less than 1% on the tax dollar—7/10ths of a penny, to be exact. I’d prefer that it were more, perhaps 2 cents on the dollar. Even during the storied Apollo era, peak NASA spending amounted to no more than 4 cents on the tax dollar. At that level, NASA’s current space-exploration program would reclaim our pre-eminence in a field we pioneered. Right now, the program paddles along slowly, with barely enough support to ever lead the journey.

So, with 99 out of 100 cents going to fund the rest of our nation’s priorities, the space program is not now (nor has it ever really been) in anybody’s way. Instead, America’s former
investments in aerospace have shaped our discovery-infused culture in ways that are obvious to the rest of the world. But we are a sufficiently wealthy nation to embrace this investment for tomorrow—to drive our economy, our ambitions and, above all, our dreams.]

As far as the U.S. is concerned, he's right. Presently, as of today, we're there for inspiration only.

Our education system and the U.S. media is lacking as well, to say the least.