Crickey !, Seam to have started quite a bit of a thread here !!.
Actually Lizzie you're too late with your script for a film based on the moon being broken up and it causing untold disaster on Earth..... They've already beaten you / gone down that road with the film screen remake of the Time Machine !. Probably why they haven't sent your cheque through !!. Yes I can hear you now

!!.
A lot of the comments I laughed at, like the one about it being done on a full moon as it'll be a bigger target !.
Seriously though. NASA's track record isn't that good. Okay so they've landed man on the moon a few times, but there were a few they don't like to talk about that they lost trying in the process, as well as the Shuttle disaster.
We had both Voyager missions (no no no Trekies, I'm on about the probes sent into space, not the TV series ! - Focus people

). Aparently these were successful upto a point I belive, then there was the fact that the little six (or eight, or however many) wheeled rover that was sent to Mars, and they lost it. (though some say it was the first every Alien car jacking !).
Now we can say that they have been successful in one way, but the other way to think about it is, well its been an expensive loss with regard to machinary, but I have to be honest. If we're going to be sending humans up into space I think we need to start with the basic's of getting a craft that is safer (and cheaper to run !), before we even think about venturing out again.
I do agree with others though, all the money could be spent wisely on this planet to get it sorted first, then maybe we can learn lessons for the next planet we go to. But somehow, I think we've got a long way to go before we can even think about our journey outwards !. We're still like babies learning to walk in comparison to the likes of Aliens and Sci-Fi (different topic thread altogether ?).
And to end, what if our space explorers did meet an Alien, do you think the imortal words will be spoken "we come in peace".......
And their reply "Yeah, untill your military find out were here, then what ?".
or
"Go back home to your planet imigrants, we're full !".
