Here's my issues with current day space flight:
1. Why does it take so long to book a mission?
Back in the 1960's Nasa was booking an Apollo mission roughly every 6 WEEKS. Now we see one every what... 9 months? Year? This was the final blitz play to make it to the moon first... we did, multiple times, and then suddenly decided to just orbit the earth. What happened there?
2. Dollar value.
Lets try to imagine the amount of money spent on these rockets that take 5-8 people to low earth orbit... we cant... its an UNREAL amount of money. So lets think about what it has cost for the only privateer to actually make a craft capable of going to low earth orbit while using rockets only after climbing to 50 or so thousand feet... roughly $100M... peanuts compared to the shuttle. So now lets think... how difficult would it really be, to modify an existing product, to fly only from earth, to the space station carrying ONLY people and their gear, and immediately back to earth.... 10% of the shuttle cost? If that? So then lets also think about how easy and simple it would be to using "simple" rockets from the 60's to take up a cargo bay of only parts and gear to create a craft in space... still pennies right? Everything has been made so complicated that it costs ridiculous money now.
3. No one dreams.
As little kids now days, do we really dream about going into space? Do we even know what an astronaut is anymore? 50 years ago, little kids dreamed of walking on the moon. What do we dream about now? Being rap artists? Sports icons? Nascar greats? The country today is only united by one thing... complaining. We complain about everything. How much gas costs, why electric is so expensive, laws we don't agree with, taxes, the cable going out, the guy in the turn lane that just wont turn, anything and EVERYTHING! 50 years ago, a whole nation got everyone excited about one common goal. And as a nation, we achieved it. Now, the only thing we achieve is a top spot on the worlds fattest countries list.