1 On Monday, Anek Laothamatas, the minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, revealed that, by the middle of next month, a plan to send a spacecraft into the moon's orbit in seven years from now will be announced. According to him, Thailand will be the fifth Asian country to achieve this extraterrestrial feat, following China, Japan, South Korea and India. Khun Anek added that taxpayers' money will be used to yield tangible results rather than just more research and teaching, at the launch of a project to crowdfund locally-made vaccines against Covid-19 led by Chulalongkorn University. His words sparked online backlash as many questioned the usefulness of such an ambitious plan and whether it's the wisest decision to use taxpayers' money to either build or buy the spaceship when we could have used the resources on something more pressing. Some even joked that there's no need to go to the moon as our roads and "sidewalks" are bumpy enough and that they should put certain people in the said spacecraft on a one-way trip to the moon.