What a waste of time...

the cure for cancer wouldn't really matter if we then discovered that there was a huge asteroid that was going to wipe out the whole of mankind and we hadn't even begun thinking about space exploration.
The bigger picture should include mankinds ultimate survival which may one day mean some of us making that journey into space to populate other planets.
Also correct me if I'm wrong but haven't many breakthroughs involving medical equipment come about through research undertaken in the space programme?