Word: billions
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...shuttle is also the first NASA spacecraft to have a military role. Though the Pentagon is paying about a sixth of the shuttle's cost, or $1.5 billion, it is not saying much about its plans. But these are not too hard to figure out. To control the military "high ground" of the future, the shuttle will not only launch satellites but track down others, nudge up to them and disable them if they present a threat. All of which may explain why the Soviets, who apparently have their own capacity to hunt down and kill satellites, have complained...
...reason for Peking's retreat to more modest goals became clear during the two-week session of the congress, when precise statistics on the Chinese economy were released for the first time since 1959. They showed that the country had a gross national product of $360 billion in 1978, compared with $2.107 trillion for the U.S. The average Chinese buys only $6 worth of goods per month, excluding food. Out of a population of an estimated 960 million, only about 95 million people receive regular wages. For the others, who are paid partly in rice and other grains, Chen...
Even so, there is considerable federal aid from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, which was founded in 1964 during Lyndon Johnson's presidency. UMTA provides 80% of the construction funds after states and local communities have raised the first 20%, and this year it will contribute $3.3 billion to 5,803 transit undertakings...
...planned to link downtown Los Angeles with part of the residential San Fernando Valley gets federal funding this year, the line is not expected to be completed until 1990. Meanwhile, inflation makes original cost estimates ridiculous. In 1968 the entire 101-mile Washington Metro was planned to cost $2.5 billion; already $4 billion has been spent, but it is only one-third completed...
...General Jorge Diaz Serrano estimates that the immediate area contains as much as 800 million bbl. of top-quality lightweight crude and "will considerably increase Mexico's oil reserves." Before this strike, the country's proven reserves of oil and gas stood at the equivalent of 40 billion bbl., well above those of both Venezuela and Nigeria but still far below Saudi Arabia's 160 billion bbl. Though Mexico is not a member of OPEC, it took a page from the cartel's book last week and lifted its prices from...