One of the criticisms I keep hearing about NASA is that the very thing which made it good in the Space Race era has also been the milestone around its neck ever since — that it is structured as a pork barrel jobs program in each and every state.

I have no way to tell how fair that claim is, but I’m sure someone here has either been into space or worked closely enough with NASA to comment.

If that’s true, the “waste” is also the advertising that gets the funding for the things which matter. And that’s even ignoring the possibility that the manned missions do the things which can’t be automated.