Number of asteroids that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory says crosses Earth's orbit each year.
1 to 1,900
Ratio the U.S. spent on tracking asteroids this year to its spending on missile defense.
Posted by Mikal at December 26, 2003 6:24 AMYes, but with a missile defense shield, we can protect ourselves from all the ICBMs the terrorists have been shooting at us! As everyone knows, asteroids can always be taken care of by Bruce Willis and a couple of Space Shuttles.
Shortly after the Star Wars shield was proposed by Reagan, I received a mailing that promised to tell me how to cash in on all the government contracts that would result from this program. Apparently a lot of people responded to it...
Posted by: Stan at May 5, 2004 10:29 AM