Odd Lots Why NASA Hired a Chief Economist
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Mar 31, 2026 
Alexander MacDonald, former NASA chief economist and now a CSIS space policy researcher, dives into why NASA needed an economist in the first place. He explores how space exploration gets funded, why the shuttle era ended, and how NASA weighs public spending against commercial partnerships. The conversation also touches on moon plans, Mars ambitions, and whether a real space economy is finally taking shape.
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Why Governments Took Over Space Funding
- US space activity shifted from philanthropy to government when rocketry became entwined with war and national signaling.
- Goddard first relied on the Guggenheims, but World War II made governments the dominant funders of rockets as weapons and launch technology.
Why NASA Moved From Shuttle To Commercial Crew
- NASA retired the shuttle because it could not be made safe enough at a regular, economical flight rate after Columbia.
- MacDonald said NASA’s budget has been basically inflation-flat since the early 1970s, so commercial partnerships became a way to pursue bigger ambitions.
Why NASA Measures Economic Impact Not ROI
- MacDonald distinguished NASA spending from investment returns and said the right metric is economic impact, not ROI.
- NASA publishes biennial impact reports showing spending across all 50 states while Congress and presidents keep steering missions from Earth science to Artemis and Mars.
