Anonymous via the Cypherpunks Tonga Remailer
wrote:
[...]
It is puzzling to me why men still want to risk their necks for Earth
orbit. The shuttle is just going to go 'round and 'round, just like Yuri
did way back when.

Because a) it is still space travel, and b) they are hoping to
contribute to being able to do more adventurous space flights, and c)
they are hoping to contribute useful information for groundlings.

Everybody remembers the first guy: Yuri Gargarin and
Neil Armstrong (poor guy flubbed his 11 words but he's still okay in my
book), but who of you out there can tell me, without a Google search, the
THIRD man to walk the Moon?

Well, my grey cells are beginning to poof at the effort, but I'll go
with Al Bean.

/dps