We can get out into the solar system. To Mars, maybe, without getting the people on board killed. But that’s about it. Just not practical until real money, and time are put into RnD for new methods of propulsion, and sustainability in zero and low gravity.
NASA certainly shouldn’t be observing global warming, the science is settled, it’s bad science, global warming does not exist. The models are flawed, and this has been proven.
But we shouldn’t be sending men and women out into the solar system to die either. It’s not that hard to get into space, landing safely on a gravity well and taking off again is the problem.
One thing I would be all for is building a “generation ship” in space, and sending it.....somewhere.
Space is simply......too big.
They should have built upgraded versions of the shuttle instead of going backwards and using rockets again.
The single stage to orbit spaceplane never panned out.