although the latest Spacex launch went without a hitch, and the whole Crew Dragon spacecraft seems to be doing its job very well, The Boeing Starliner is still in the development phase..if the 2nd test flight does not go well this summer, one wonders if the whole program will get canned..
Which leads me on to my point..with the stunning success of Perseverance on Mars, especially the Ingenuity Mars helicopter,, is crewed spaceflight still relevant?
So Spacex have the contract to land humans back on the Moon, after 50 odd years..What will these new Astronauts achieve, that the Apollo crews didnt?
Back in the 50s and 60s, automation was in its infancy, computers were crude and unreliable, so sending a man (or woman) up into space was the politically sound option..
But now the politcal will is somewhat different, and off-the-shelf hardware can make space exploration with probes a far cheaper (and more reliable) option.
any thoughts?