The NASA program cannot be compared to what the Chinese did with 300 ship expeditions. Maybe that would be better compared to our expeditions in the Middle East and the military industrial complex in general, but not NASA. I agree with the comment completely about how Europe won. Maybe the commercialization of many aspects of space is the key. I for one am excited to some day travel between New York and Hong Kong in a couple hours on a Virgin Galactic flight, if such endeavors are profitable and competitive then space may lead to 500 years of thriving growth. Still though there needs to be government backing for the cutting edge, which does not need to be armadas but shouldn't be shut down completely.