Don't forget, part of NASA's responsibility is to educate, not just to get to space/moon/planets/etc.. faster. I was at the Goddard Space Flight Center for an internship over the summer, and while a lot of what they do focuses on getting to space/building better equipment, they also devote a lot of time to educating (weekly -at least- talks from important people in the field, educational fairs for younger kids, internships for students, etc...).