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President Bush's Money For Space Cometh

citanon writes " The Washington Post reports that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has delivered, via the omnibus spending bill passed Nov. 20, the President's full budgetary request of $16.2 billion dollars for NASA as a part of his Vision for Space Exploration. Despite earlier reports that NASA's budget will be cut, DeLay, whose congressional district now includes the Johnson Space Center, was able to deliver the full budgetary request without any debate. NASA now has "enough money to forge ahead on a plan that would reshape U.S. space policy for decades to come." Despite this early victory, questions regarding the full cost of the program remain unresolved. It is also unclear whether the NASA bureaucracy will be able to rise to the challenges posed in the initiative and which current projects will suffer as a consequence."

4 of 619 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No, really, you -shouldn't- have. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    "a stable middle east is foundational to the survival of the western world"

    Really? How so?

    The middle-east was more stable before we invaded. Maybe we should stop selling weapons to every other country in the area.

  2. Re:No, really, you -shouldn't- have. by Zebra_X · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    No really - shut up.

    Go post your economic complaints elsewhere. This is not the site.

    16 billion is nothing in the grand scheme of things and it's not going to break the bank.

    We need to keep ahead.

  3. messed up priorities by VegetariMan · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Great. We have 2 billion people living on less than $2 a day and we spend $16 billion on space exploration. (And $500 billion on a useless military...)

    --
    --Nick
  4. Re:No, really, you -shouldn't- have. by dave420 · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    The US is spending too much money. This project, and indeed any other "vanity" projects, should be halted. The US has a responsibility to its citizens to not piss money away. Playing a massive game of one-upmanship with the rest of the world is, quite frankly, pathetic. Most other nations guage their success by the percentage of people living in poverty, or the rise in the standard of living, not putting people on rocks for good TV and bragging rights. Even if the scientific benefits are staggering, we should wait. The returns from these missions will be years away, and will take ages to turn a profit.

    I'm sure you'll find some way of justifying pissing away money that can save peoples lives, so I'll shut up now.

    thanks.