Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

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SPACE AS AN INVESTMENT IN ECONOMIC GROWTH
further than any other entity.” 4 The work of the MRI research team documents that
NASA’s support and extensive R&D funding made possible many comprehensive and
ground-breaking advancements in coding theory. For many years coding was considered
to be an esoteric and impractical approach to communications, yet it provided NASA an
excellent alternative to adding weight, power, and complexity to spacecraft. The case
study of digital communication/error-correcting codes illustrates how a technology
advanced by NASA to meet the mission requirements for deep space communications has
spawned a family of high performance and productivity-enhancing electronic devices with
annual sales expected to reach over $17 billion by 1990.
Likewise, NASA’s role in civil aeronautics is a good example of why the United States
has a decided edge in the world’s commercial aircraft market. Improvements in civil aeronautics
performance and efficiency have spanned some 70 years since the early days of the
National Advisory Committee [for] Aeronautics (NACA). This report summarizes a series
of advances aimed at enhancing the performance and efficiency of civil aircraft. The cases
cited are intended to illustrate the complex paths by which new knowledge applicable to
the design, construction, and operation of modern aircraft comes into being; the interactions
between the aerospace industry and government centers of research and technology;
the numerous evolutionary changes and improvements that are contributed from
many sources; and the often prolonged period of time required to validate, demonstrate,
and refine technological advances before they become accepted commercially and widely
used.
As a result of NASA’s continuing R&D in aeronautics, man can fly farther, faster, higher,
and more efficiently and safely than thought possible 20 years ago.
This Executive Report summarizes the economic impact of NASA’s research. Part I
explains the methodology, findings, and projections of economic benefits resulting from
NASA R&D. Part II presents the technology advances and resulting benefits from digital
communications, civil aeronautics performance and efficiency, and seven future technology
areas. . . .
Document III-7
Document title: “NASA Report May Overstate the Economic Benefits of Research and
Development Spending,” Report of the Comptroller General of the United States,
PAD-78-18, October 18, 1977, pp. i–iii.
Source: General Accounting Office Library, General Accounting Office, Washington, D.C.
Democratic Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin commissioned the Government Accounting Office
(GAO) to review the 1976 Chase study (Document III-4). Because of the study’s somewhat unusual
approach to macroeconomic forecasting, the GAO was critical of its findings and concluded that case
studies of innovation and benefits were more telling of NASA impacts than overall budget/economy
calculations. During this era, there was a general belief that R&D was an economic investment with
a good payoff to society, but economic models, and particularly macroeconomic models, were not considered
definitive evidence of long-term projected benefits. The following are the opening pages of the
GAO report.
4. Interview with Irving Reed at his office at the University of Southern California, April 28, 1988.