Space flight has military benefits ("Hey look - we can go into space too, so don't fuck with us!"), scientific benefits (experimentation in a zero-gravity vacuum, material analysis of the interplanetary medium, vastly improved telescopy), immense practical benefits (without rocketry we wouldn't have cell phones and GPS devices, for example), and potential long-term benefits (the possibility of space colonies, protecting humanity from extinction due to a variety of existential risks). Since NASA is actually fairly cheap as U.S. government projects go, and since spaceflight is increasingly moving toward becoming a private endeavour (made possible, in part, by decades of publicly-funded spaceflight) you'd be hard-pressed to demonstrate that the cost-benefit analysis comes out in the negative.
EDIT: That's also not including the quality-of-life benefits that come from getting to watch something this totally awesome.
without rocketry we wouldn't have cell phones and GPS devices, for example
GPS, sure, but how does cellular telephony rely on satellites or rockets? Do you mean satellite phones that are used by reporters in regions without reliable cellular telephone service?
Behold the power of applied rationality!
...ok, this is really just geek mind candy.