Katie Couric's Notebook: To The Moon
In today's Notebook, Katie remembers the dawn of the space age, with the launch of Sputnik on this date -- and wonders if all the money for space exploration has been well spent. Click the monitor to watch.
October 4, 2006 2:05 PM
Video: More from Couric & Co. and Evening News on CBSNews.com
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- That was one of the most ill-informed commentaries I've heard in quite some time.
It is said that NASA returns $7 to the US economy for every dollar put into it. Reality check: for comparison, Americans spend more than $160 billion per year entertainment, sporting events, movie tickets, etc. That's nearly ten times NASA's budget!
So you gotta ask yourself Katie, would you fund a program that provides excellent jobs and a myriad of benefits to humanity, or would you rather watch millionaires running around on a field playing a child's game or one of Hollywood's awful remakes?
I think CBS should fire you and use your salary to fund a scholarship program for needy kids. By my calculation you could send nearly a thousands kids to college on full scholarships. I wonder what impact that would have down here on planet Earth? I guess we'll never know... - Reply to this comment
- That was one of the most ill-informed commentaries I've heard in quite some time.
It is said that NASA returns $7 to the US economy for every dollar put into it. Reality check: for comparison, Americans spend more than $160 billion per year entertainment, sporting events, movie tickets, etc. That's nearly ten times NASA's budget!
So you gotta ask yourself Katie, would you fund a program that provides excellent jobs and a myriad of benefits to humanity, or would you rather watch millionaires running around on a field playing a child's game or one of Hollywood's awful remakes?
I think CBS should fire you and use your salary to fund a scholarship program for needy kids. By my calculation you could send nearly a thousands kids to college on full scholarships. I wonder what impact that would have down here on planet Earth? I guess we'll never know... - Reply to this comment
- Geez...I guess that let's me out. Even in the 60's I had to try to work up enthusiasm.
Not that I don't acknowledge all the advancements because of it...but I'm just not sure I had to have them anyway.
"NASA is one of the few remaining facets of the US that is viewed almost completely positively in most of the world. Every time you learn that some new section of the globe is becoming disheartened with America, consider the millions of people disseminated around the world who continue to be thrilled for the US and mankind when they see incredible closeup pictures of the rings of Saturn, learn of the exploits and accomplishments of the little robots on Mars, or see an international group of danger-defying scie
ntists on the International Space Station." - Reply to this comment
- I was upset at the comment you made concerning the space program. That was America's shining moment. Perhaps the money we are spending in the war should be the more relevant question. What wonderful things could be achieved if that money was spent in this country.
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- Katie, what were you doing on 7/20/69? I was watching CBS News coverage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin setting foot on the moon while Michael Collins orbited them.
If you want to know what real news is, ask Walter Cronkite. He was literally at a loss for words, or maybe he simply realized no commentary at all from him was even necessary.
It was that great of an acheivement, and it was for all mankind, as Armstrong proclaimed.
I can only imagine how disappointed he must be to see what you've made the CBS Evening News into--light, fluffy and loaded with college sophomore level handwringing from somebody taking home a salary in the low 8 figures.
I bet Dan Rather and Bob Scheiffer were also groaning and shaking their heads in disgust at how narrow and small your vision really is.
Please do us a favor and save the platitudes for the cocktail party circuit. - Reply to this comment
- Katie, what were you doing on 7/20/69? I was watching CBS News coverage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin setting foot on the moon while Michael Collins orbited them.
If you want to know what real news is, ask Walter Cronkite. He was literally at a loss for words, or maybe he simply realized no commentary at all from him was even necessary. I can only imagine how disappointed he is in what you've made the CBS Evening News into--fluffy, light and loaded with college sophomore level handwringing from somebody taking home a salary in the low 8 figures.
It was that great of an acheivement, and it was for all mankind as Armstrong proclaimed.
I bet Dan Rather and Bob Scheiffer were also groaning and shaking their heads in disgust at how narrow and small your vision really is.
Save the platitudes for cocktail parties on the Upper West Side. - Reply to this comment
- Katie,
Well, you need not wonder anymore; without NASA & the space program, everything from plastics to newer-lighter cars, internal medicine, and everything in between would be much further behind.
When the world talks about the United States, they say "You sent a man to the moon, but you can't...." [Fill in the blanks].
NASA is THE Standard by which all Americans are held, and will likely be the greatest legacy we leave over the next millennia.
Of all the great things our progressive science & aerospace programs have given back to us, the price of positive publicity in the world's opinion is a pittance compared to what has been spent.
CBS could do well to take note of this. Your salary alone could pay over 600 Engineers & Scientists salaries over the next decade. Think about THAT when you talk of 'spending money on the ground'.
As has already been said so eloquently: EVERY NASA DOLLAR IS SPENT ON EARTH.
Not only is the current NASA budget less than 1% of our annual budget, IT IS ALSO LESS THAN IT WAS 30 YEARS AGO (when we sent men to the Moon: in 1969 it was $19B), and that is NOT adjusted for inflation!
That was back when cigarettes were 30 cents a pack, and a House often cost less than $30,000. Now that the average American cannot purchase a new car for the latter price, and cigarettes run over $5 per pack, we're beginning a new space-race.
Now we%u2019re spending less than %5 annually of what we did during the 60%u2019s. - Reply to this comment
- NASA's budget is a fraction of the money wasted on our Iraq misadventure. The Pentagon spends NASA's budget every three months just to stay in Iraq.
Unlike the Pentagon, NASA has a positive mission - to explore. The space agency has garnered worldwide admiration for the U.S. over the years, something that Iraq certainly hasn't provided.
So why do you pick on NASA funding without mentioning Iraq? Ratings?
I miss Bob.
- Ed Kyle - Reply to this comment
- Wow. The person that had a live colonoscopy done on TV, and pleaded with America (and parts of Canada) that this is a lifesaving procedure rips the Agency that produced the technology that spawned those tests.
That $12mil a year isn't buying CBS too much, now is it?
Where's Bob Schieffer when you need him? - Reply to this comment
- Katie,
I just viewed your comments on the (doubtful) value of NASA.
I cannot believe that you and/or your staff could be so uninformed, especially at the same time you are reputedly part of a news organization more robust than the Geezer Gazette. I can't help but think that the world would be better served if CBS had donated your salary to NASA and you were sent home to do some remedial reading and browsing of such websites as imagiverse.org
Then again, maybe this was just a cry to the airwaves to see if anyone was watching, and cared enough to write one of these responses.
Stephen Mitchell - Reply to this comment
- Ms. Couric's leftist core didn't take very long to come out, did it?
She still clings to the long-proven falsehood that money our tax money particularly is the univeral bandaid to all ills. How sad it is that a major media figure can question a proud and substanitive program such as NASA while we as a society continue to fund late-term abortions, give away programs, and other wastes that blatently create and promote dependancy.
You want to cure hunger? Find a hungry person and tell them where they can find work to pay for food. Don't hand them a dime! Once you do that, you've created a never-ending sense of dependancy.
Back to NASA ~ Anybody take notice of how many lives have been spared due to hurricanes since the advent of satellites? Honestly, take a look at the death tolls for pre-satellite major hurricanes. They were in the TENS OF THOUSANDS! Now we know where they are born, what direction they are headed, and what best way to get out of the way. That fact alone is worth the price.
Ms. Couric ~ please have your staff at least do a courtesy check on your commentary ~ it's embarrassing to watch you make such a liberal fool of yourself. Oops, there I go with that oft-repeated redunancy again.... - Reply to this comment
- Katie,
With increasingly bad PR spreading with our cultural, economic, and mostly political missteps, NASA is one of the few remaining facets of the US that is viewed almost completely positively in most of the world. Every time you learn that some new section of the globe is becoming disheartened with America, consider the millions of people disseminated around the world who continue to be thrilled for the US and mankind when they see incredible closeup pictures of the rings of Saturn, learn of the exploits and accomplishments of the little robots on Mars, or see an international group of danger-defying scientists on the International Space Station. Shame on you and your staff, with such out-of-proportion role model power, to so casually impugn a REAL role model for Americans and American youth in particular. Although NASA is humanly flawed, as is every other agency in the world, its undebatably immense contributions in the early and continuing phases of telecommunications, weather prediction, climatology, and global monitoring, not to mention the innumerable technologies it has spawned, make your dangerously casual dismissal terribly sad. - Reply to this comment
- If NASA ever receives the 17 Billion, it will be towards unmanned exploration and one day returning to the moon. When an industry as big as NASA, which collaborates with the entire world through engineers and scientists to reach for something more than Earthly domains, takes risks something is known, perhaps at a small price but more often at a large price. The technology NASA uses reaches the mainstream of society and it covers a broad spectrum of new discoveries. But one must have vision into the future of mankind and see that if we remain on Earth, we become finite just as Earth's resources are finite. No, we must look beyond our Earthly limitations and in so doing know that all of mankind has a future. Every kid in the world has dreamed at one time or another of going to the moon, that human connection of wanting to explore is what brings us together. If only for this one point of many to choose from, we should always keep NASA afloat.
- Reply to this comment
- Katie,
This has to be one of the worst commentaries ever. Do your homework. The space program has given us thousands of inventions, and a great understanding of world, from global warming and weather to geology.
What's next??? A moon hoax piece? - Reply to this comment
- NASA is a bargain and a shrewd investment for the future of people everywhere in terms of job growth in high paying highly technical sectors of the economy. When NASA contracts with aerospace firms to build the hardware to take us back to the Moon they hire people with engineering degrees and other high tech disciplines to design and build the hardware. Every cent spent on space is actually spent right here on Earth. There are numerous numbers of industries that will be created by going back to the Moon we can%u2019t even fathom and one of the benefits of exploration that history has taught us. Let's not give up on it again. One reason to send people back to the Moon is to explore the unknown. It's hard wired into us and it's one of humankinds noblest qualities. It%u2019s far better than spending money on the war in Iraq. Compare NASA's 17 billion dollars a year budget to the (how many billions we've poured into?) War on Poverty since 1965 you have to ask "for what?" Poverty rates today are still about the same as they were in 1965. But the technical spin-offs of NASA are profound and benefit all Americans, indeed they benefit the world. Rethink your observations about NASA and let's get on with building the hardware that will take humans back to the Moon, Mars and far beyond. NASA can inspire our young people to aspire to the final frontier.
- Reply to this comment
- Katie:
I sent a comment to CBSNews regarding your newscast. This was before I finally found my way here.
Need to get your Webmeister up to speed on 'user-friendly'.
Anyway, on to the meat.
As I stated in my commentary e-mail, NASA gets less than 1% of the Federal Budget.
Let me repeat:
NASA GETS LESS THAN 1% OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET.
Social programs get over 50%, possibly over 60%.
STOP pouring money into panaceas, and start pouring money into programs that generate GOOD-PAYING JOBS!
Start pouring money into EDUCATION programs that DEMAND GREATNESS from kids; STOP molly-coddling them. STOP excusing PARENTS for NOT PARENTING. STOP THE SINGLE MOST DANGEROUS practice in our schools today: PEER Promotion!
Give NASA the chance to SAVE THIS WORLD - and your children's future.
Don't they deserve it? Don't your girls deserve to HAVE a future? One where they can continue to learn and grow?
Or should they huddle in a grass shack, picking lice off their daughters' scalps?
Case closed.
And yes, I am a proud Vietnam Veteran, and proud to be a science-fiction fan. Because MY eyes are on the future - of the world, and the human race. - Reply to this comment
- Ms. Couric,
I mean no offense and will not go into as much detail as the poster above but - you're wrong. NASA is one of the few government activities that puts more back into the economy than it takes from the taxpayer.
Give us a ring at Liftport in Bremerton, Washington and we'll set the story straight.
Brian Dunbar
brian.dunbar@liftport.com
Liftport - Reply to this comment
- Come visit a NASA Center or 2. Or, just have one of your staff pick up any copy of "Spin-offs" magazine, published by NASA every year. You'll love the taste of crow when it's cooked correctly.
And, to paraphrase the movie "American President", you just lost my viewship. CBS should bring back Connie Chung. - Reply to this comment
- Advanced breast byopsy systems
Advanced breast cancer detection
Micro x~ray cameras
Digital mammography
Genetic abnormality detection
Composite "Smart" surgical instruments
Pill~size transmitters to monitor fetal activity
LED probes to treat skin cancer, brain tumors and wound healing
IR ear thermometers
Prosthetic arms and legs
CATScans and MRIs
"Cool" lasers for heart surgery (Angioplasty)
Human tissue stimulation
Ultrasound skin damage assessment (burns)
"Cool" suit to relieve symptoms of MS and Cerebral Palsy
Programmable pacemaker
Voice~controlled wheelchair
Advanced ocular screening for young children
Inexpensive radiation detection
Smoke detectors
Cordless tools/appliances
Satellite TV technology
Home insulation
Water purification
Firefighter breathing systems
"Jaws of Life"
Emergency response robot (bombs, etc...)
Self~righting life raft
Personal alarm system
Virtual reality
Global communication
Advanced lasers for medical instruments, TV graphics, data storage, telecommunications and semi~conductor processing
Landmine clearing products & techniques
Oceanographic modeling & tracking
Oil spill control
Forest fire fighting and control
Hydroponics
Global mapping technology
Polarized sunglasses
Windshear prediction
Lightning protection
Collision avoidance systems
Document and artwork protection and authentication
Archeology
Governmentally speaking...a pretty good investment.
Brett Switzer
Jefferson City, MO - Reply to this comment
- Most often though, the seeds %u2018spat%u2019 back at us by the U.S. space program manage to land on fertile ground where they germinate into new ideas or commercialization of NASA developed products.
The most fertile ground that any of those seeds can possibly land upon though is the fallow, as yet unseeded, and fertile minds and imaginations of our children. When such seeds take root in such a place there is no limit to how tall, and beautiful, and wondrous, and most importantly, fruitful such a plant will become.
Katie, lean back, look up, and wonder. There is no telling what is out there. There is no telling YET. If we don%u2019t look up and wonder, we will remain ignorant of possibilities we cannot even imagine. We will focus our energies, blood, and treasure on terrestrial inanities ad infunitum until we find ourselves concerned only with ratings, profits, runaway brides, and film actor antics. If such happens, we deserve whatever it is you seem to want us to get.
P.S. As you leaned in your chair during your commentary, you were leaning to the right. Just thought you might want to know. - Reply to this comment
