NASA exists as an overseeing civilian administrative agency for the United States' Manned Flight, Earth Orbital Satellite and Deep Space Probe programs. In addition, it is res
…ponsible for overseeing the development of civilian and military aerospace research and development. Contrary to public perception, NASA is actually a very small agency, and by comparison with other government agencies, does not have a large staff of federal employees. The bulk of NASA operations at its field centers (e.g., Goddard, Marshall, Langley, JPL, Johnson, etc.) are actually staffed by private contractor employees whose companies are under contract to NASA. This is why it's ridiculous when it's said that the Space Program should be privatized - it essentially already is. Fully 90% of NASA's operations are run by contractors or government employees from other agencies. As an example, though I was assigned to NASA Manned Flight and many other programs, I was not an actual NASA employee; I was a Department of Defense QA Engineer assigned to NASA. NASA also uses employees from the military as well as many other agencies. NASA's primary function is to facilitate policy that governs the U.S. Space Program, and interface with other countries' Space Agencies (e.g. ESA) that we have joint space operations with. It also funnels technology developed for the Space Program back into the private sector for use as consumer devices. Every year NASA publishes a book with all the technology developed for use in Space, and anyone can take that technology and bring it to the consumer market. Examples over the years of Space technology that's found its way to the masses are Lithium Ion Batteries (HST/ISS Pistol Grip Tool), SSD Drives (developed from the Hubble Telescope Solid State Recorder), and Tempurpedic mattresses (material designed for Astronaut crew seats). (MORE) 
