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Measuring The NASA Stimulus, National Journal
"... But placing a monetary value on those benefits proved more difficult, even for one of NASA's greatest achievements. The "fact remains that we got to the moon in a decade, but are, as yet, unable to fully measure the present and future economic impact of the science and technology accumulated on the way to the moon (or the aggregate effect of technological progress in general)," noted the authors of a 1971 Midwest Research Institute study. No one's ever really resolved the uncertainty. And as a result, researchers over the years have come up with a wide array of returns on investment for NASA spending. Estimated ratios of revenue generated compared to spending have been as high as 14-to-1."
A very interesting article in all; yet, it make little or no mention of one, if not the greatest return on investment that NASA has offered this nation and indeed the world. No other organization or industry, other than the popular media possibly, has had the effect of inspiring and motivating people to engage in innovative thought, enhance educational goals, and broaden to a universal mindset than the achievements of our space programs; inefficient as they are at times. This is almost unquantifiable as an economic return on investment as it drives individual goal/career paths and crosses generational boundaries. Therefore, it seems that NASA has and will always be a success because it will always provide a greater than a 1-1 economic benefit versus spending.