Polling has consistently found that most people would prefer NASA spend money on things like monitoring climate change and averting asteroid collisions rather than human spaceflight.
Winds from Tropical Cyclone Narelle stirred up rust-colored dust from iron-rich soil, tinging the sky over Western Australia with a reddish Mars-like hue.
The four astronauts — three Americans and one Canadian — spoke from a prelaunch quarantine ahead of their scheduled Wednesday mission.
The astronaut, Michael Fincke, experienced a medical emergency in January that rendered him unable to speak, he said.