The First Amendment also prohibits violation of the freedom of the press--which when written, referred to the technology of publishing, and not just to the profession of journalism.

A computer is a press in the sense meant by the First Amendment.

Instead of the solar time he created (which varies continuously with longitude)?

And why wouldn't it happen at the same absolute time everywhere?

How could you expect journalists (newspapers, TV, magazines,..) to understand how the internet works, when they lack any substantive understanding of how just about anything works?

Agreed:

1) Scientific/technical research in general, and the exploration of space in particular, not only aren't the core responsibility (or competence, for that matter) of government, they aren't a legitimate government function. Government has only one purpose, one motivation for its existence, and one moral justification for its operation: Defending the rights of individuals against those who would violate them, whether foreign or domestic. So, unless such activities can be justified on that basis (and that can be done in some cases!) it is morally evil to use money extracted from taxpayers by force of law for any such purpose.

2) At this point in time, it would be a far better use of available funds to do research and development work in the domains of nanotechnology and biotechnology. With a mature nanotechnology, space exploration can be accomplished far more effectively, and at far less cost (relative to world income/wealth.) And there are many fundamental issues affecting manned space travel that await advances in biotechnology for acceptable solutions.

Will they be in town all week? Can we still get tickets?