Steve Jobs and Bill Gates owe a large part of their fortunes to Apollo. So do the millions of men and women whose everyday jobs depend on computers - which means virtually the entire U.S. workforce. Weather satellites spot and track storms all across the world. They provide Southwest Florida with ample warnings of tropical storms and hurricanes. Without them, unexpected storms could kill thousands each year and destroy billions of dollars' property.
Communications satellites link all the world into an electronic neighborhood.
We can communicate by phone or e-mail instantly almost anywhere on Earth, watch the Olympic games no matter where they are played, be stirred to counter the atrocities committed by dictators in the Balkans or Africa or any nation on Earth. Today, space industries are being developed by private enterprise. Billions of dollars are being invested in new communications and observation satellites, new rocket boosters that will make journeys into space as commonplace as travel by air. The next generation of rocket boosters will not only bring tourists into orbit, they will be able to fly to any place on Earth in less than an hour. That alone will repay all the money we taxpayers invested in Apollo.