A recent article in The News stated that NASA had conducted a test of the Aries I-X rocket, the first step in the back-to-the- moon program. According to the article, this test cost $445 million. NASA claims that space exploration benefits the entire planet and future generations.

Future generations? Our future generations are dying in hospitals from childhood diseases for which we have no cure. Teachers are being furloughed without pay because there’s no money for education. If we can’t educate our children, where will future scientists come from?

Can you imagine what $445 million would do toward the search for a cure for cancer, leukemia, diabetes and childhood diseases, and toward education?

The moon is uninhabitable. We knew this even before the Apollo missions. Let’s take these NASA scientists and put them to work solving some of the problems we have right here on earth: finding cures for diseases and working on projects that would create jobs.

Harvey Moore

Tonawanda