On Oct. 19, the House voted to kill the $11 billion Superconducting Supercollider on a procedural vote. Opponents said the country could no longer afford it.
The supercollider was seen as a symbol of American technological supremacy and was intended to conduct experiments in particle physics that would address basic questions about the nature of matter.
The decision to stop the project, which was about one-fifth completed, was expected to cost $1 billion and leave a 10-mile hole in the ground in Texas.
