For one thing we got greatly improved communications.  Satellite communications, a definite child of the space program, has given us the ability to make phone calls around the world especially to remote places.  As well as live video of events the world over from international disasters to the Olympic Games.  Got cable or satellite TV?  Thank NASA.  Yes even the cable companies receive their feeds via satellite before sending it down the cable to your house.     

As they say on TV, wait there is more.  How about Global Positioning Satellite?  GPS is spreading like wild fire in the military, commerce and our private lives.  GPS is more than a cool toy.  This navigational aid saves tons of money in fuel savings alone.  Think about it for a minute.  If only 1 million drivers avoid driving 1 extra mile a year because GPS navigation kept them on track we would save 1 million miles of driving.  At 20 miles per gallon that is 50,000 gallons of gas or 6 tanker trucks.  Far more than 1 million drivers have GPS and they save way more than 1 mile a year.  It adds up pretty quick.

GPS does more than just get us where we are going.  Even if you totally oppose the Iraq war or war in general, GPS saves lives on both sides.  GPS gives us the ability to carry out surgical strikes against enemy targets.  In World War 2 Allied bombers dropped hundreds of bombs over large areas in hopes of hitting their targets.  Those bombs were lucky to hit within a couple hundred yards of the target.  Today's GPS guided munitions strike within 6 inches of their targets thus reducing the number of bombs dropped the number of bombing raids launched and the number unintended causalities.  War will always be ugly but GPS technology has enabled the United States greatly shrink the battle field.

Our space program saves lives in other ways too.  Most people think Hurricane Katrina was a deadly storm and it was.  Nearly 1500 people died.  But look at the recent cyclone in Myanmar.  The death toll from that event is an estimated 130,000.  As bad as Katrina was most people lived to talk about it because of the early warning to evacuate.  Some didn't heed the warnings but our space based weather satellites tracked Katrina as well as all of our major storms from the time they are low pressure systems until they hit. Just think how bad Katrina would have been if nobody knew it was coming.

Environmentalist should love the space program.  About half of today's space missions are dedicated to study of the earth’s environment.  From the hole in the ozone to global climate change to ice pack mapping, the space program leads the way in many earth science studies.  Environmentalist are looking to get rid of the gasoline engine and coal burning power plants.  NASA is leading the way.  NASA has been a leading user and developer of hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels.    

This does not even scratch the surface of what we get from our space program.  And if you are impressed with that list, think about this.  Today's first graders have access to better computers than the engineers that launched our first space endeavors.  Space forces scientists and engineers of all disciplines to work together and solve a wide variety of problems.  The solutions to these problems will surely bring new benefits to those of us who remain earthbound.