Military Spends More in a Month Than NASA Does in a Year!

Well, it shouldn't be a big surprise, but there is something about seeing it in print that seems to bring it home. In a recent Gizmodo article, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson gets a bit hot under the collar. Here is some of the points he makes:

• The US military spends (during peacetime ed.) as much in 23 days as NASA spends in a year

That means:

• The entire half-century budget of NASA equals the current two year budget of the US military.

To put NASA's "foundation" into perspective, Tyson points out

• If Earth were size of a school-room globe, you'd find Shuttle and Space Station orbiting 3/8th of an inch above its surface - the Moon would be 30-ft away (and) Mars, more than a mile away."

And you have to consider this, NASA's management tells us that they are leaving the manned near Earth to commercial entities. That's good and fine but as Tyson puts it so eloquently:

• Commercial Space Flight will not advance the space frontier, but enable cheaper access to where we've already been.