In 1993, the U.S. Congress canceled one of the most ambitious scientific research projects of all time, the superconducting supercollider for high-energy physics. One of the major reasons for canceling the project was its cost, which was estimated to be at least $8.5 billion. In the years that followed, the U.S. government continued to support the international space station, a project that will end up costing more than $100 billion by the time it is completed. Why has one project received financial support while the other was killed? Note: The Large Hadron Collider is operational in Europe.