On May 25th 1961, addressing a stadium of Rice university students in Houston, President John F. Kennedy said "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."
By July 20, 1969, as promised, We had walked the face of the moon. From the end of the speech to landing on the moon the amount of innovation is staggering, the push of education in math and sciences; unmatched.
NASA takes up 0.5% of the federal budget, so out of every dollar the Government spends half a cent goes to NASA. the 850 billion dollar bank bailout amounts to more money than NASA has received in total for its 53 year history.
I don't see how NASA is supposed to innovate and create almost magical machines which lift us from the earth, or inspire youth to put priority on learning math and science if they are fighting to stay funded.
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." JFK '61
White house petition
