Yes, same here. It's an inspiring craft for me. I was enchanted by the program as a kid. Distant voyage, golden records, Carl Sagan... almost a romantic sci-fi novel :) I was a bit sad to know that it'll never be seen again. But now I think it's likely that one day we'll find it and put in a museum. Possibly on Mars :)

No kidding. When I saw the headline, my heartrate spiked a noticeable amount while I waited for the link to load.

Don't diss the 70s. The 50s went to space. The 60s went to the moon. The 70s left the solar system. Progress...

The 1970s essentially carried on from the 1950s and 1960s. The Vietnam war, resource shocks, etc. seem to have killed any real innovation during the 70s (in government/aerospace -- obviously it was better in other fields like microcomputers), and then the shift toward military in the 80s went even farther.

(there was a shift right overall, but it was mostly just a shift down in space funding, I think)