NASA has performed miracles, and done many wonderful things, including manned space exploration, science and astronomy missions, and commercially successful earth resources, navigation and communications technologies. And even those space technologies which have been successfully privatized were initially pioneered and developed by either the military or NASA, or depend in some way on government infrastructure. The taxpayer took the risks, and the corporations reaped the profits.

This drives Conservatives up the wall. They will stop at nothing to bad mouth and criticize it, and inevitably, they stick their foot in their mouth as this mindless wingnut bimbo just did.

Some things need to be done by government, because space exploration by its very nature is expensive and has no immediate payback (and sometimes, inevitably, it leads into a blind alley!). Its the same with aviation, nuclear power, and a host of other technologies. The government always has to lead the way; that is its role. That’s no slam on the private sector, its always been the case. So ignore these haters. When “free enterprise” comes up with its Hubble or Apollo, not just building a popular and useful mission or system in the hope of government contracts, but finding a way to fund it and make it profitable all by itself, then let them trash talk NASA all they want.

Its been how long now since “Destination Moon”?