In an age whenspaceflighthas cometo seemalmostroutine, itis easy tooverlookthedangersoftravel byrocket, and the difficultiesofnavigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the Earth.
While this fundamentally conservative approach avoids risky investment, it arguably comes with a significant opportunity cost ( a key lesson of the 2012 Presidential campaign): a missed chance to take advantage of technologies already available and to gain expertise innavigating this important, emerging space.