NASA has been asked to do a lot of things in the 64 years it’s been a federal agency, and on the whole, it’s delivered the goods. Beat the Soviet Union to the moon? Check. Build a fleet of reusable space shuttles? Check. Oversee a 15-nation collaboration that built a football-field sized International Space Station? Check.
But there’s one thing NASA has never been asked to do, and that’s a very good thing because it can’t: turn a profit.
As with every other branch of the government, the space agency’s money flows only one way: out. And there was a time that Congress was only too happy to cut seemingly endless checks that allowed NASA to keep spending. In 1966, at the peak of the race to the moon, the space agency’s budget was $5.9 billion—$44.89 billion in 2022 money—representing 4.4% of the total federal budget. But the space…
