Don't forget (if you're old enough to know...and I am), we got used to, and jaded with that pretty quickly, too...

Unfortunately, a 'race' mentality leads to policies and program architectures optimized to get some people 'there' in a way that's soonest, not cheapest, not affordable in the long term.

Not belittling. I live in a city, I've been out where I've seen truly dark skies, I get the picture.

What are they actually 'doing?' Announcing?

Sorry, 'ambitious' and 'novel' are not the same thing. Any dictionary will support me on that.

This is indeed done for radio astronomy:

It isn't just about light pollution (or we'd go to North Korea...), they also do it because you can't see Southern Hemisphere skies from here...

I think my biggest problem comes at 'infodump' time. Must avoid it, or at least make it feel less like one....

Or maybe....

As long as enough young people do, we're good. There will be places for them. (and, if we also let go of the assumption that 'astronaut' automatically means an astronaut for NASA, or any agency of any government)

The women have evolved somewhat since The Cage...

Star Trek: Enterprise has since shown us that the Orion 'slave' women are actually the slavers, not the slavees...

If you're an anaerobic life form here on Earth, oxygen itself is pretty poisonous stuff...!

David Brin's 'Glory Season' looks at a society with female-only human cloning, and the adventures of a pair of natural identical-twin girls...

But you're right in that being able to ask them (and get real answers) is the gold standard, and many people will not be convinced that this is an ethical issue that must be addressed, until then.

And more, here:

Only if you assume there can't possibly be any beings that are sufficiently 'humanlike' for ethical purposes.

Relax. It doesn't follow that they'll be declared US citizens...

Which is consistent with what I said elsewhere. Some won't believe it, until they can talk to it.

Sadly, we're not likely to get anywhere with this, until it becomes possible (likely through some electronic means) to have an unequivocal conversation with a cetacean.* It's much harder, though hardly impossible, to abuse someone who can clearly speak for themselves...