Space technology has delivered enormous profits from its communications satellites, and I'm convinced the earth resources satellites have more than paid for themselves, especially if you get past the direct accounting and figure in both the hidden costs and benefits. Saving lives and property through weather satellite imagery, by navigating vehicles, or doing resource assays from space yields real benefits, but there's no one actually sending out invoices for these services. The pure science projects will have long-term, but unpredictable benefits.

The public needs to be educated that space technology is not a waste of money, it has already yielded direct financial profits. Unfortunately, the profitable sectors of the technology (particularly comsats) are quickly privatized and drop below the public radar. The public relations aspect, manned spaceflight and the Hubble/planetary probe missions , never had the impact on the general population we could have hoped for.

Everybody complains about NASA, but I think it has done a terrific job in the past, and even now it occasionaly pulls off a real triumph. The scientific contributions of other nations are considerable as well, even with their modest budgets. The problem lies not in our star agencies, but in ourselves.