Hi Bowser.
Your right.
You can’t expect a government agency to turn a profit.
They are in the business of providing services.
The fewer the better.

Making NASA profitable was not my point. I was just
thinking of ways that could improve our chances of
exploring space beyond what we have seen since 1969.

If we could direct research towards more profitable endeavors in space then maybe the interests of private industry would be stirred. How many private companies are now working with NASA to develop products and production methods in 0 or 1/6 G? What about orbital solar power generation?

I think if we don’t find some dollars (euros) somewhere up there, we may take a trip or two to Mars and that would be it for manned exploration in my lifetime.