We all know that society applies almost arbitrary values to all these things.
42,000 road deaths annually? Meh. 3,000 people die in the terror attacks of 9/11? Multi-trillion-dollar, 20 year war.
Politicians only fund NASA manned launches because the average voter thinks it's kinda cool and maybe it inspires some kids to work hard at school. Too many high profile, fear-inducing deaths and politicians are liable to decide the money spent on NASA could be better spent elsewhere.
Yes, the point I'm working toward is the manned space program is not worth the money spent on it. The willingness to suspend the thing for years when a few astronauts die is a tell. If what they were doing was actually important this would not be allowed to happen.
Just because something is important (although I'm not saying that manned space exploration is), doesn't mean it has to be done tomorrow.
e.g. It's important you save for your kids college, but you don't need to have all the money saved up by time they are 10 years old.
Rushing an important task can also cause it to fail. Being overly aggressive with college savings by putting it in high-risk investments would not be conducive to meeting goals, and NASA losing public support by getting crew killed unnecessarily would not be conducive to them getting funding for future manned missions.
42,000 road deaths annually? Meh. 3,000 people die in the terror attacks of 9/11? Multi-trillion-dollar, 20 year war.
Politicians only fund NASA manned launches because the average voter thinks it's kinda cool and maybe it inspires some kids to work hard at school. Too many high profile, fear-inducing deaths and politicians are liable to decide the money spent on NASA could be better spent elsewhere.