It's an incentive to keep things going for up to eight years -- arguably only four.
"This needs maintenance or it'll collapse in five years" has little political weight if your term ends in four years.
"This needs maintenance or it'll collapse in five years" has little political weight if your term ends in four years.
Being the first president to announce the detection of an extraterrestrial intelligence would be a big deal. Clinton certainly jumped on the mic pretty fast when we thought life had been found on mars. Such possibilities could provide the political motivation to keep the next giant telescope funded.