It's fair to argue that NASA's Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were just a shiny distraction, that the taxpayers' revenue should've been spent fighting poverty and improving public education. But it's disingenuous to argue that Kennedy's moonshot was a waste of money. The technology that America reaped from the federal investment in space hardware (satellite reconnaissance, biomedical equipment, light weight materials, water-purification systems, improved computing systems, and a global search-and-rescue sstem) has earned its worth multiple times over. Ever since, whenever we have worried about an America in decline, Kennedy's moonshot challenge has stood as the green light reminding us that together as a society we can accomplish virtually any feat. XIX