The private sector funds just 18% of basic research in this country. The public sector funds 57%, with universities and foundations covering the rest. (Mariana Mazzucato, The Entrepreneurial State. Also see the MIT report, “The Future Postponed: Why Declining Investment in Basic Research Threatens a U.S. Innovation Deficit.”)
It really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
