PS – I agree with the above.
Amazing really how far we can ‘see’ billions of light years into the distant past, yet we can barely get off this earth, never mind travel beyond the solar system to other stars and/or galaxies.

The feat is not beyond man, but it is beyond ‘economics’ – if one waits for space exploration and space travel to become profitable, before one engages in manned space flight – it will be a long wait indeed.

Oddly enough, wages & operating costs are never discussed on the Starship Enterprise, even though we know it is only a hollywood movie.

It is the desire to explore and to go where no man has gone before has to be the primordial driving force. And I dare say most US billionaires or multimillionaires are too old with dickie hearts to be fit for space. We can’t expect Dick Cheney to be interested in space travel, when he’s clearly got his eye on other things – and his heart in his doctor’s surgery.