But, like the auto industry, a shutdown not only affects the entity being shut down, but all of the industries/businesses that rely on that entity. Like restaurants, tourism, retail, communities, the tax base, the schools, the public works, and every company that supplied raw material to NASA.I'd love to see a lot more space exploration, but as the conservatives love to say, we're broke. I'd rather poor people have food and heating oil than for us to have more Space Shuttles.