spacester,<br /><br />If you want to talk about a big hole that money is thrown into, look at the Drug Enforcement Administration. That agencies budget has been very close to the amount NASA has received since 1982. Net results: Zero! But they will get 18 billion again next year, because no Congressperson dare appear 'soft on crime'. What they are is soft in the head!<br /><br />If NASA had been receiving the DEA's budget since 1982, maybe the space station that they proposed when the shuttle first flew might have been built in a timely manner. Maybe there would have been some real progress in space. Maybe young people might believe that there is a future worth striving for, and spend their spare time enriching their minds instead of their dealers.<br /><br />Finally, we have a space station, but guess what? We don't have any way to get there! By the time that we will have the means to travel to the space station, it won't be ours any more. <br /><br />The way that we are funding the space program, there is never enough money to do all the things that we need to do at the same time. In order to accomplish anything at all, NASA is forced to compromise on designs, postpone program start-ups, build for the the short term.<br /><br />NASA wanted to build a reusable launch vehicle back in the late 1960's, and came up with a design that probably would have been very efficient. Congress wouldn't provide the money, so we ended up with a vehicle which was never able to do what the original design was supposed to do. Is that NASA's fault? Would it have been better if the administrator had said "If we can't do this right, it isn't worth doing at all."?<br /><br />We will never have an effective space program if Congress insists on micro-managing the program. If that appoach had been used in the days of Apollo, we would still be waiting to get to the Moon. This is one of the most technical, complex, esoteric fields known to the human race, but every senator and representativ <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>