You may want to have a seat for this one. It turns out that, believe it or not, it’s possible to have a science program without federal funding.

Shocking, I know.

But preliminary reports indicate a new dynamic is afoot: If something is popular enough, and if people actually want it enough, it’ll be funded without taxpayers having to foot the bill.

I know. Wild, huh?

Forty-two radio telescope dishes near Mount Shasta will again start listening for sounds of intelligent life in the universe this fall after donors — including actress Jodie Foster — came up with more than $200,000 to save the Mountain View-based SETI program, made famous by the movie “Contact.”

The Allen Telescope Array was shut down in April when the SETI (Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute ran short of of money for the project.

The non-profit organization, which was founded in 1985 and funded in the 1990s by Hewlett Packard co-founder David Packard, said the $210,000 in donations it has raised this summer will allow the radio antennas to be turned back on by September. They will be re-calibrated and operated 24 hours a day through the end of 2011 while the organization continues to raise funds.

They require $2.5 million per year, which is entirely feasible for a prominent organization with such high-profile support.

This is going to be a tough concept for liberals to handle. Their entire worldview has been shaken. I mean, a popular organization managing to operate without money from Washington? Without taxpayers being forced to foot the bill? Who knew it was possible? I mean, besides everyone who has been saying as much for decades, of course.