(MasterShrink) wrote in
:

The level is the lowest since 1989, just months after shuttle
flights resumed following the Challenger explosion.

1989 was "months" after Challenger?

Months after return-to-flight, not the accident itself.

NASA's budget was cut during the 1990s, with even steeper cuts to the
shuttle program. Most people polled were unaware of those cuts. Only
29 percent of people thought NASA's budget had shrunk during the past
10 years compared to the overall federal budget. Nearly twice as many
people, 56 percent, thought the budget had remained the same or
increased.

Typical...I recall Michael Collins mentioning in his book that people
seem rather unaware of just how much (or) little of their taxes get
spent on NASA. Because of the extravagance of the program though its
easy to try and pick and and say "oh, we can shave a little off their
budget".

ISTR there was a poll long ago (70s or 80s) that asked what percentage of
the federal budget 1) people *thought* NASA got, and 2) people thought NASA
*should* get. The median was around 20% for 1), 10% for 2). If they only
knew NASA gets 0.7% now...


--
JRF

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