Contested Ground: The Historical Debate Over NASA's Mission

by W.D. Kay

Since the opening of the space age nearly 50 years ago,the U.S. government has spent close to 1 trillion dollars on space related activities. Although by no means the largest public expenditure over that period- it is easily dwarfed by national defense, social security, and countless other federal programs- it is still, by any measure, an enormous amount of money. It therefore seems perfectly reasonable to what has the American taxpayer gotten in return for this rather large investment?

496 pages, Paperback

First published July 13, 2012