NASA: Budget Buster or Bargain?
We often hear the lament that we are over spending on NASA and that
cuts are thus necessitated. This is usually followed by lamentations
that we spend far too many resources on our space program in general.
Let us look at the real truth vs. the spin.
The first red flag in almost any discussion of the Federal budget is
the use of total dollars rather than percentage of budget. Have you
ever noticed how the NASA budget is always referred to in billions of
dollars and never as how much we allocate as a percentage of spending?
There is a reason for this approach. The dollar amount is always
perceived as excessive as almost any expenditure of our government
seems high when quoted in dollars. Framing spending as the percentage
of total spending is the only real measure of any allotment.
Further, the point is made to point to any and all NASA shortcomings
and or failures. The point being that we are wasting these billions of
dollars and getting absolutely little if any return. Do not fear, I'm
not about to tell you that NASA gave us Teflon, as that is irrelevant
and probably false. Sure, there have been many spin-offs that have
benefited our general society, but those are but inconsequential
benefits.
The first thing we need to look at is what did we spend on NASA during
the glory years of 1960 through 1969. What did we invest in the space
race to the moon? Below is the table showing this information. The
numbers are in thousands of dollars and have been rounded off.
Year
NASA Budget
Total Federal Expenditures
NASA Budget as % of Total Federal Expenditures
1960
401,033
76,539,412
0.5%
1961
744,308
81,515,167
0.9%
1962
1,257,047
87,786,766
1.4%
1963
2,552,035
92,589,764
2.8%
1964
4,170,997
97,684,374
4.3%
1965
5,092,904
96,506,904
5.3%
1966
5,932,630
106,917,396
5.5%
1967
5,425,815
172,442,136
3.1%
1968
4,723,783
194,032,346
2.4%
1969
4,252,749
206,618,289
2.1%
We can see that the highest spending came between 1963 and1967. This
also corresponds in our manned space program and the development ofthe
Gemini and Apollo spacecraft as well as larger boosters to lift the
larger payloads into orbit. Afterwards the spending returns to the
decade average of around 2.5% of the national budget.
Most people believe that the NASA budget remained approximately the
same right up to today. Let us examine the table below of the NASA
spending during the 1990's and see the truth. The numbers are in
millions of dollars and have been rounded off.
Year
NASA Budget
Total Federal Expenditures
NASA Budget as % of Total Federal Expenditures
1990
12,429
1,251,776
1.0%
1991
13,878
1,323,757
1.0%
1992
13,961
1,380,794
1.0%
1993
14,305
1,408,532
1.0%
1994
13,695
1,460,553
0.9%
1995
13,377
1,515,412
0.9%
1996
13,882
1,560,094
0.9%
1997
14,358
1,600,911
0.9%
1998
14,206
1,651,383
0.9%
1999
13,664
1,704,545
0.8%
Our space program is critical to the future of our country and the
world. The future of mankind is in the stars and the country that
establishes itself in this frontier will win far more than simple
bragging rights. Once any nation can establish sustainable colonies
elsewhere in space, they will no longer be contained by the
geopolitical realities and pressures here on Earth. This process will
be ongoing and the United States is not the only contender in this
race. Somehow I believe that investing up to 5% of our budget would
not be an excessive request. As we call on NASA to do more and conquer
space, we must also give NASA sufficient monetary resources to
accomplish that mission. When you speak of progress in a space
program, you get out of it proportionally what you put into it. Let us
at least make a marginal effort to fund our space program to an extent
where we can actually expect results, rather than cut the funding year
after year complaining that NASA does not meet expectations.
Expectations take money. All in all, I would contend that NASA has
been a bargain, but we can no longer try to get away with a space
program that is under funded for the expectations placed upon the
program.
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