Do NASA’s past spending profiles foretell the future?
Based on the history of past NASA budgets, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has concluded that scientists should be grateful rather than complain about the share they receive. He offered the following statistics: during the Apollo era science received 17 percent of NASA’s budget; during the 1990s, 24 percent; and today, 32 percent. That means almost a doubling since the golden years of Apollo, if you do not take inflation into account. But does the increase for science really reflect a big gain for NASA’s research portfolio? A short review of history can be informative. In the ten years after NASA was formed in 1958, most of its budget was allocated to three offices, Manned Space Flight (OMSF), Space Science and Applications (OSSA), and Advanced Research and Technology (OART); the latter organization included aeronautics research. At the dawn of the Space Age only a relatively small segment of the greater scientific community had an interest in using space to expand its research horizon
