--- title: Why the U.S. Should Invest in Space Exploration [VERTICAL] | TIME canonical: https://time.com/video/di8imacL/ og:title: Why the U.S. Should Invest in Space Exploration [VERTICAL] og:url: https://time.com/video/di8imacL/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/di8imacL/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why the U.S. Should Invest in Space Exploration [VERTICAL] twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/di8imacL/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Science # Why the U.S. Should Invest in Space Exploration \[VERTICAL\] > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Why the U.S. Should Invest in Space Exploration VERTICAL [Watch (HLS stream): Why the U.S. Should Invest in Space Exploration VERTICAL](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/di8imacL.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2026-04-08_ --- Apr 8, 2026 7:07 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Trump Tells Davos Elite to Invest in U.S. or Face Tariffs](/video/r4uevtoj/) ### Trump Tells Davos Elite to Invest in U.S. or Face Tariffs [The U.S. Space Force Just Launched Its First Mission](/video/1YetaTPJ/) ### The U.S. Space Force Just Launched Its First Mission [U.S. Wildfires Seen from Space](/video/sDSrAJSM/) ### U.S. Wildfires Seen from Space --- ## Transcript Since the beginning of the space program, people have asked why we're spending money to attend to matters off the earth when we have so many problems on the earth. It's a long standing question, and it has a simple answer. And that is space, as these things go, comes cheap. The most NASA ever received from the federal government was in 1965, when NASA funding represented just 4% of the federal budget. Today, that figure is 0.4%. NASA funding over the past several years has been relatively flat at $24 billion. The federal government in fiscal year 2025 spent $7.01 trillion. NASA's budget is a rounding error in the overall federal budget. It's never been an either or proposition. We've always been able to explore space and take care of matters on earth. Whew. It's very hard to put a price tag on what space brings us. It's very hard to put a price tag on the inspiration people felt in 1968, when Apollo eight orbited the moon on Christmas Eve. A Merry Christmas and God bless all of you. It's very hard to put a price tag on the inspiration that landing on the moon or landing a rover on Mars brings people. We go to space because we are a questing species, and we're a species that stands on one side of an ocean and wonders what's on the other side, where a species that stands in one valley and wants to get up the mountain and over into the next valley. This is what we do as human beings. Exploration is in our nature, and it's not asking too much for government to fund some of that project. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why the U.S. Should Invest in Space Exploration [VERTICAL]","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/di8imacL/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-04-08T17:57:47.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/di8imacL.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/di8imacL/","duration":"PT2M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/di8imacL/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```