If NASA were a privately owned company, would they still be in business?

Answer 1

hey dont cast dispersions on silly putty and velcro. Revolutionary stuff they come up with. Actually I like NASA it would be sweet to have a moon/Mars colony so humanity will continue after we have poisoned/nuked this planet into dust.

Answer 2

If NASA were a private company we probably wouldn't have made it to the moon. I doubt the hiring would have been as good. That being said, if we had gotten to the moon in 1969 like we did and a private comapny was running it, we would now be on MARS! We've done nothing in space for thirty years. I don't see the space shuttle as being a great accomplishment. A heavy boost rocket would have been a better choice, and that's what they're going to.

I believe the money spent was well worth it. I remember the 1969 Christmas broadcast from the moon.

Answer 3

For a business to survive, the customers have to be willing to pay for what they get.

NASA essentially has one customer--the Federal Government. Which, for the last 12 years, has consistantly failed to pay what it has promised, and continued to demand results without providing the necessary funds.

So, no. If NASA were a private budiness, it dwould not survive--not with a customer like the GOP Congress from 1994-2006.

If, on the other hand, the government had to pay for the value it gets--from weather and communications satellites to the value of the computer technology, medical advances, and materials science--NASA would be one of the most profitable "businesses" on--or off--Earth.

Answer 4

Without a doubt in my mind NO

NASA takes a large portion of tax payers dollars for its cause. It is way to expensive to be privatly funded.

Its important to remember that a business is a business. Its goal would be to gain money, the only real way it can do that is through selling patents. This will not be enough to withstand its enormous budget cost.

As part of the government, its purpose is not to gain money, but its more focused on the research. Research doesnt earn you money, it earns you knowledge, and knowledge doesnt feed your kids.

On top of all of that, if the government was to hand NASA over to a private company, then who? It would be handing over (or selling) a great facility to either NASA killer A, NASA killer B, or NASA killer C.

Answer 5

No. But there are pushes for privately owned orbital travel and space vessels. There was even a competition. But it's just SO expensive.

BUT: NASA has made many other companies possible.

Answer 6

Yes for every dollar we put into NASA we get about 7 dollars in spin off technology. NASA is one of the smallest line items in the federal budget.

For every dollar we put into welfare less than 10 cents goes to help the welfare mom.

So what do you think is a better deal?

Answer 7

Does everything that exists have to make a profit?
Somethings are worth our investments in the long haul, and hopefully NASA will never be a private enterprise.

Business exists for profits, Governments exist for people.

Answer 8

Oh yes do you realize at all how much technology developed by NASA comes into the manufacturing and therefore the consumer market? God they would make bajillions

Answer 9

no... it's a high risk, low (financial) reward kind of thing... that's why no business bothers to do it...

it's pretty neat to know all the stuff that they have learned... but I do wonder if it's worth the price tag...

a lot of money for "pretty neat"

Answer 10

no, but NASA's research has added to every ones quality of life in ways that can never be counted