NASA Expenditures

* Some readers have given expression to shortsighted criticism of NASA’s manned programs, such as the Mir missions (letters, Sept. 30). They have failed to consider the value of failure, the experience gained when things go wrong, the skills developed by repairing damaged space structures and renovating “aging” facilities. By giving up too soon, such experience is lost.

I would rather more of my tax dollars go to funding manned and unmanned NASA missions. Why not kill all subsidies to tobacco farmers, for example, and fund a trip to the moon?

GREG WHEELER

Monrovia