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FLY ME TO THE MOON
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Since the space race and the Apollo missions, the size of NASA's budget (adjusted for inflation) has shrunk considerably. The United States government made space exploration a top national priority, data viz website Chartr reveals in a stunning chart. At its peak, in 1966, NASA made up 4.4 percent of the total US budget. Today, despite getting a recent bump in spending, NASA only makes up 0.5 percent of the budget. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, see how NASA's budget share has changed over the years.

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Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of when 3 blokes got in a tiny car-sized capsule and flew 384,000 kilometres to pick up some rocks. AKA the first crewed mission to land on the moon. – Often, reflecting on the sheer audacity of the achievement comes with a sense of unease; namely – why haven't we done anything cool like this recently? Sure, the internet is nice and you can press a button on your phone and get Chinese food delivered to your door in 20 minutes, but it's not exactly flying to the actual moon. 🌒 – The reality is that the US government at the time made it a massive priority, throwing millions of dollars at the space race during the 60s. In 1966, NASA accounted for 4.4% of the total US government budget. These days, it's around a tenth of that (0.5%). – At the beginning the Apollo missions weren't unanimously popular. They did little to improve the livelihoods of millions of ordinary citizens, and that's exactly the reason why it's so hard for ambitious projects to get off the ground. Some reasonable person always shows that you could build 20 hospitals, or X miles of new roads, instead of 1 massive rocket. We'll just have to hope Elon takes us all to Mars. – This chart was one of three that we sent in our weekly newsletter today. Every Friday we'll post one of them to this Instagram, but if you never want to miss a chart then sign up for the newsletter! Link is in bio, it's absolutely free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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[H/T Chartr]

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