I wish NASA was a private conglomeration too. The Government always fails at anything other than national defense of individual's liberty, life, and property. Instead, it should promote competition and free market solutions.
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.
