For every dollar spent on space, the knowledge ore brings back as much as $8. And that’s not counting the 65,000 jobs created by the space program—which uses private contractors to do most of the work. (The multiplier is an extrapolation from Jerome Schnee, “The Economic Impacts of the U.S. Space Program,” available at er.jsc.nasa.gov.) The jobs figure is a conservative estimate, starting with the 18,000 NASA employees (nasa.gov) and tens of thousands of on-site contactors at NASA’s Centers.