enthalpy

Thursday, January 29, 2004


So I'm still a bit wound up about some of the space program's detractors. I expanded on Lilek's take here, but I thought I'd link to the cartoon before it went away:



If you want to criticize NASA till we return to flight, hey, get in line. But I'm sick to death of seeing this crap. Ask the "man on the street" what percentage of the federal budget NASA receives, and you're likely to hear something on the order of 20%. Those shuttles and stations are a whole lot cheaper than people think they are, because NASA's entire budget is about 0.7% of the federal budget (about $15 Billion).

So consider that when you hear about NASA's funding depriving a crippled orphan or a starving senior citizen. The '03 budget for The Department of Health and Human Services was about $491 Billion.

And what do we have to show for that money, so long as we're keeping score???




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