Is NASA a waste of money?

[HOUSTON RICK]

No, it is not a waste of money. It keeps my nerdy, engineer neighbors employed and not talking to me about their over-engineered pinewood derby cars or birdhouses with digital cameras so the kids can watch the baby birds grow up - and has a lot of science courses for local kids.

 

[nicky4968]

Anything that makes life easier and more productive is a keeper.
In my own industry (Court Reporting), our biggest advance, real-time (what we use for closed captioning for the hearing impaired), was dreamt up by the CIA.
The computers we all use came out of the space program.
New and better materials and alloys have come from the space program.

 

[bladerunner82]

Living so close to Houston, I'm at a loss as to why the current administration loathes NASA. As others have said, it's an immense source of pride for Americans and the USA.

I'm always a bit perturbed when I hear of American astronauts having to get a "lift" to and from the ISS from the Russians. We could be using our own gear and expanding our own tech all the while providing more jobs to more Americans. As a kid, what was cooler than NASA in action?

 

[Grayfox]

Does NASA waste money? Absolutely.
They are a government agency and like any other government agency, they're bogged down with red tape, endless paperwork, idiot bureaucrats, playing politics and all the other baggage that goes along with any federal agency.
There's little doubt that NASA could definitely use some restructuring and redirecting.

Is NASA a waste of money? Absolutely NOT!
Aside from all the good things already mentioned, the ultimate future of mankind lies somewhere out there among the stars. While it may not happen for several centuries yet, I truly believe that at some point in the future, for whatever reason, that the survival of the human race will depend on our ability to bail off of this ball and colonize other planets.
It sure would be helpful if we had someplace to go and the means to get there.