joining us now, scott hubbard, professor of aeronautics at stanford university, and michael mandel, chief economic strategist at the progressive policy institute. >> welcome to you, gentleman. >> thank you. >> glad to be here. >> susie: scott, let me begin with you. was the shuttle program worth it? >> the impact of the shuttle program has been significant and mixed. on the one hand, it gave the u.s. unquestioned leadership in space for 30 years. it launched the hubble space telescope and serviced it. it carried out construction of the space station. but it also was high risk. we lost two crews. and we learned it's very expensive to operate. >> susie: did we get our money's worth? what do you think? >> i think the economic impact was far less than expected. if you go back what was supposeed to happen, we were supposeed to have manufacturing in space, and the amounts were in the multiple billions and none of that happened. we've been going through diminishing expectations and diminishing expectations. in the end, i think it turned out to be the wrong road. >> susie: you know, mike. the pro