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Chapter 116

2022 : D

READING2 · 44 questions

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Chapter 116 · 2022 : D · READING2

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) is a US government agency whose budget isfrequently (1) many times contested. Many people thinkof NASA’s programs as trivial. In truth, the agency has awidespread positive (2) effect on society by serving as acatalyst for innovation and scientific understanding,(3) to create jobs, and showing humanity its place withinthe universe.In 1958, the program’s first year, very few peoplebelieved that it was even possible for a manned spacecraftto leave the atmosphere and orbit Earth. But by initiatingand collaborating on projects such as the Apollo Moonmissions, the space shuttle program, the Hubble Space(4) Telescope, and unmanned planetary exploration,NASA has continually challenged its scientists andengineers to do things that were previously thoughtimpossible. All along, these NASA projects have(5) greatly increased international cooperation. A shortlist of inventions (6) elaborated by NASA includescommunications satellites, invisible braces, and cordlesstools. All these inventions (7) spawns new industries,and with those industries, jobs. NASA also sponsors theSmall Business Innovation Research and Small BusinessTechnology Transfer programs, which are specificallydesigned to support technological development in theprivate sector.[1] A report by the Space Foundation estimated thatNASA contributed $180 billion to the economy in 2005.[2] More than 60 percent of the contribution (8) comingfrom commercial goods and services created bycompanies using space-related technology. [3] Thistranslates as excellent returns from an agency thatreceived approximately 17.7 billion in tax dollars in 2014.[4] This investment by taxpayers enhances not only thenational economy but also the United States’competitiveness in the international market.[5] Moreover, the benefits of NASA funding extendbeyond the purely economic, as astrophysicist NeildeGrasse Tyson indicated in his testimony before the USSenate: “For...a penny on a dollar—we can transformthe country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary ofeconomic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed itstwentieth-century birthright to dream of tomorrow.” (9)Tyson’s expansive vision for the agency hints atanother mission of NASA’s, illuminated in thisobservation by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell: “Youdevelop an instant global consciousness, a peopleorientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of theworld, and a compulsion to do something about it.”(10) With world population topping seven billion,humanity is in need of some perspective. (11) Therefore,we should continue to support NASA not only forpractical reasons but also because it is a necessary vehiclefor increasing our awareness of how we can fulfill ourresponsibilities to the planet and each other.

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