There's just so little science here though, to expect the audience on HN to get excited about redoing something 65 years later for the purpose of political grand-standing and nationalism while the world literally burns and so many are hurting... I'd be more upset if a bunch of insulated tech nerds obliviously continued to along their easy trajectories without a though of everyone else. We may not be the 1% but we're definitely the 5%
There are less wars than ever, and we are all richer than ever. Stop watching the news, it makes you dumb.
If our ancestors had listened to arguments like this, we might all be still in a small zone in Africa.
Opportunistically venturing out of Africa is one thing. Sending a couple people around a distant and desolate rock, while the homeworld burns due to unforced errors, is another.
Alternatively, if we don't become a multi-planetary species, we will be exterminated by a meteor. There's enough excess to do a bit of species saving multi-tasking.
For an alternate perspective, the development for this (which includes future launches) was only 80% the cost of ~500 miles of railway in California! [1]
[1] https://www.kabc.com/2026/04/06/high-speed-rail-cost-now-at-...