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space (spās) n. 1. space beyond the atmosphere of the earth.

prag·ma·tism (prgm-tzm) n. A way of approaching situations or solving problems that emphasizes practical applications and consequences.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

China Spends How Much?

I know everyone got in a hissy last week about whether China's space program is a threat or not, but I saw this and did a double take. According to space.com,

...China does spend about one-half of 1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on its space program, and since the nation's GDP has risen 30 percent since 2002 due to a booming economy, more funding is expected
.5% of GDP? Is that right? Tariq Malik may mean the Budget, but if not, wow. The US GDP in real dollars for 2004 was 11.743 trillion dollars (yes I said trillion). If the US spent .5% of GDP on NASA, their budget would be 58.67 billion dollars a year. Not to mention, if it was tied to GDP, it would grow at an average of ~3% a year. I guess China is serious...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

.5% of the Chinese GDP would be $36 billion -- as much as all civillian and military space activities in the US combined. So I don't think this is accurate.