Leonardo said:

Would you guys say there's not that much interest in space since... well, the 70's? Nowadays, if something happens in the scientific world regarding some new conquers in the matter of the colonization of outer space, it gains a little attention in the news, say a couple of weeks, people may think "huh, neat" but then it's quickly forgotten in favor of some blonde bimbo who gained her 15 minutes of fame doing something absolutely inane and vulgar on tv.

I mean, let's face it, space, sad as it is, has lost its appeal.

....Meet Leo, dispenser of platitudes...

If you've seen the Apollo 13 movie, the public and the media were getting ho hum about the moon landings until things went awry. It's unfortunate considering the technological spinoffs that touch our lives everyday. I've encountered someone reasonably well educated recently who didn't know there was more than one moon landing. *sigh*

How many people know we have an honest to goodness space station up and running right now?

I did see plenty of young people who were wide eyed with awe by the hardware on display at the Kennedy Space center on my vacation, so maybe there's still hope. Just being there for the first time since the 70's made me feel like a kid again.

George Lucas once expressed his hopes that Star Wars would get kids excited about real life space travel.