Reaching for the Moon in the 1960s was a stupendous challenge, and it required an enormous investment in aerospace research and development (R&D). During the period since the end of the Apollo program, however, the nation’s investment in aerospace R&D has declined by more than half of what it was during the heyday of space exploration. As a percentage of U.S. government investment in R&D, NASA’s portion accounted for 14 percent of the nation’s total in 1980 but that amount has declined to 7 percent.
