Over the course of 50 years, NASA has sent people to the moon, rovers on Mars, and is even thinking of sending people to Mars. However, have you ever considered the cost of this program? NASA siphons up tens of billions of dollars every year on space exploration. This money could be going to much more important terrestrial causes, such as ending poverty, curing diseases, and stopping global warming. According to their official budget, NASA is projected to spend 18.5 billion dollars out of the 21 billion they are funded, using tax payers dollars. This money is sometimes wasted, in unsuccessful launches and flights, which leads me to my next topic: the successfulness of their launches. NASA wastes time and money on these launches, which turn out to fail anyway. For example, the Apollo 13. This flight was disrupted by an oxygen leak, causing the spacecraft to crash land. Billions of dollars were wasted on this flight. Though the success rate has increased to about 94%, the risk can be devastating. The third and final argument I would like to talk about is space pollution. More than 500,000 pieces of debris orbit Earth at speeds of 17,500 mph. This not only damages spacecraft and satellites, it can create a dangerous environment for the astronauts in flight. On top of the fact that this, once again, can waste money. The floating debris can damage and destroy functioning satellites, and create even more debris. As there have been ways to clean up this debris, more will be created if NASA continues its operations from things like rocket boosters. NASA is stuck in the 1960's, and instead of trying to figure out problems back on Earth, they are still trying to send people to Mars. The time has come to pull the plug on NASA and its space exploration.