this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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Yeah! What usefull things NASA has done for human kind?!
Other than: Memory foam, Portable cordless vacuum, Freeze-dried food, CMOS image sensors, Light-induced oxidation air scrubbers, Weight-resistance exercise equipment, Water purification systems, Firefighting protective gear, Highway safety grooves, Image stabilization technology, Anti-icing aircraft systems, Scratch-resistant lenses, Infrared ear thermometers, Insulation materials (radiant barrier foil), Aerogel insulation products, Programmable heart pacers (derived control tech), LASIK eye-surgery mapping technology, Advanced prosthetics components, Shock-absorbing athletic shoe materials, Improved tire rubber compounds, Portable blood analyzers, Satellite-based weather data applications, Crop monitoring algorithms, Oil spill mapping technologies, Baby formula nutrient fortification (DHA/ARA research contributions)
You know NASA was founded over a decade after Manhattan project right.
And that first ICBM came from the soviets, not from the USA. Also before NASA was founded.
An ICBM before NASA? Maybe the V2.
Now now mr conspiracy theorists. We are not talking about yanks and their culture. We are talking about NASA.
The one agency in USA that is sience based, does most collaborations with other science based organisations and has done great scientific breaktroughs that has helped allmost every human on this planet and they have shared those findings
Think for a moment. If NASA was an integral part of american military development and filled with evil geniouses that want to subjucate rest of the world, why they are the agency that struggles the most to keep their funding and has been for years under the knive.
And mr. Nobel invented dynamite. Should i shun Nelson Mandela because he won the price named after somebody whose invention has brought death in large scale?
Science wont kill, the application does. Yelling about NASA being military monster institution is directing your energy to the wrong place. Be angry towards pentagon or to american goverment. Dont be try to bunch NASA in to the same group, just because you feel bad about the world. Their work has brought betterment for humanity and yelling how they are just nazies trying to end the world just eats their credibility.
Also i want to point out, that the naive person, who does not understand how the world works, here are you. Trying to neatly box huge institution with over 18 000 people working in, into one neat package, when in the real world you know everything is not black and white and sometimes people need to do things they dont necessary agree with, so later they can keep working on things they want to.
Also i dont consider myself as a liberal. Im from country with working democracy, and where politics are more intrique than blue versus red.
What a nice and well-balanced fella.
NASA is science and space exploration. There is some involvement with military, but a lot of that is launch stuff, not weapons design nor DoD rockets.
I thought ICBMs use silos. Rockets launching space payloads use launch pads, then they have space probes, experiments, observatories, novel imaging systems for gather knowledge about the cosmos. Rather than just solid rocket motors, they sometimes combine those with chemical propellants or just use chemical. Then maintain orbit with hypergols. The missions are much different, have much more rigorous and extensive command and data handling, way more complicated logistics, and way more mission flight algos / coding. Manned flights also have a lot more qualification, fault management, training, quality control and safety efforts.
JPL is not a NASA center. It's a non-profit lab for government support. People at NASA like space flight and science. Killing people is not the spirit at any NASA center.
JPL is not a NASA center. It's a non profit lab that supports government functions. Its not even civil service. It's kind of like Aerospace Corporation, which is another example of a gov-affiliated non-profit that can support a variety of gov functions. You're way off on this. Also, DARPA is DoD, not NASA.
JPL is owned by CalTec really. NASA does not own JPL. NASA wasn't even stood up well until like 50s or 60s. It absorbed NACA, which might have led to this confusion. However, those people were working nuclear propulsion for space flight, like the NERVA rocket.
Science should be considered sacred. Say what you will about the US, but NASA is a good org. It's just crippled by stupid greedy assholes that take all it's money and go over budget right now.
Where does one go to work on science exploration that is immune from greedy assholes. I'd love to hear about this fantasy world you live in.