[cripplecreek]

Consider, if Columbus had been funded by some Renaissance version of NASA,

Columbus was government funded as were Lewis and Clark.

[votemout]

You can add Magellan and most of the others.

[Oceander]

And you ought to think about the differences in the governments before you try and make facile comparisons that I had, in fact, already discounted.

Speaking of which, this is rather unsporting - why should government be obligated to fund spaceflight, but not healthcare, using tax monies?