oss
national product, could prevail against the barbarians. Their GNP
was negligible; nevertheless they ransacked the mighty Roman
Empire.

The gross national product is no insurance of survival. It is not a
sign of military strength, and indeed, it may not even be
sufficient for the economic battle.[25]

Thus from the point of view of economic stimulus and continued
commercial dynamism, space exploration should be--and is proving to
be--a godsend.

U.S. EXPENDITURES ON SPACE

It is impossible to arrive at accurate figures which might help indicate
the extent of this effort in dollars and cents. But we do know that the
U.S. Government is presently putting about $3.5 billion annually into
the research and development phases. How much more may be going into the
purchase of completed space hardware is difficult to say; certainly it
is a higher figure still. The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, in presenting its 10-year plan to Congress recently,
indicated that this agency alone expects to average between $1.5 and $2
billion a year during the next decade.

The amount of effort going into space-related programs on the part of
private industry, measured in dollars, again can only be roughly
estimated. But it is a sizable figure and is known to be growing. It may
amount to half the governmental research and development outlay.

These figures add up to a very important segment of the national
economy, and the fact that they represent a highly active and
progressive segment is particularly heartening to the economic experts
of the Nation.

THE SPREAD OF ECONOMIC BENEFITS

One of the most useful characteristics of the space program is that its
needs "spread across the entire industrial spectrum--electronics,
metals, fuels, ceramics, machinery, plastics, instruments, textiles,
thermals, cryogenics, and a thousand other areas."[26] The benefits from
space exploration thus have a way of filtering into almost every area of
the American economy, either directly or indirectly. "Perhaps the
greatest economic treasure is the advanced technology required for more
and more difficult space missions. This new technology is advancing at a
meteoric rate. Its benefits are spreading throughout our whole
industrial and economic system."[27]

A graphic example of the manner in which the technological and economic
benefits from the space program can grow may be seen from the
development o