Up, up and away.

Now that the Space Shuttle program has finished, is it time to look at whether this whole business of going into space is in any way cost-effective?  It all started of course as a macho-posturing exercise between the USA and the USSR in the Cold War days - remember JFK's famous speech when he said "We choose to go to the moon....".  The crucial word of course is "choose" - they didn't have to, and it's debatable whether it brought any great benefits - other of course than giving the USA the bragging rights.  The Shuttle program was conceived and indeed started while the Cold War was still active, and once started it developed its own unstoppable momentum.  There's no doubt that it has achieved much in the scientific field  - the space station, the Hubble telescope - but all this has been at a tremendous cost, and it's arguable that even in the field of the advancement of science, the money could have been better spent.  So do we need a Shuttle replacement?  Or has the time come to turn the page, and leave the exploration of space to the sci-fi writers?