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Senate: NASA May Get Better Budget
colonist writes "The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill that funds NASA at $16.379 billion: $200 million more than this year, but $665 million less than President Bush's budget request. (The House version of the bill funds NASA at $15.1 billion: $229 million below this year and $1.1 billion below the request.) The shuttle budget is fully funded, but the International Space Station budget is reduced. There is initial funding for a robotic servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The budgets for the Crew Exploration Vehicle and Project Prometheus are reduced. $10 million is provided for the Centennial Challenges."
On senate website.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): is funded at $16.379 billion, an increase of $200 million over the FY04 enacted level, and a reduction of $665 million from the budget request. An additional $800 million in emergency funding was added for NASA during the Committee's consideration of the bill.
800 million in "emergency funding" is the difference here.
What a waste. Inside that budget is the fact that they're cutting everything worthwhile that the agency does in favor of some dream of "going to the moon/mars." There's no point in going to the moon/mars. A better option would be to build a space elevator (5-10 billion dollars) and then do whatever missions to mars/the moon for 100 times less (as the space elevator would transport material up into space for just 100 dollars a pound, instead of tens of thousands...)