NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Lays Off 300 Engineers

Ghost of Von Karmen writes "NASA JPL, the lab that brought us missions such as Voyager, Cassini, and the Mars Exploration Rovers will eliminate about 300 engineering related positions due to Congressional budget cuts, according to various sources. The cuts reflect a change in emphasis away from robotic technology and toward human exploration of space. Prof. Elachi, head of JPL has indicated that the lab may pursue Department of Defense contracts to minimize additional reductions in personnel."

Comments

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[hcob$]

You morons who are taking every opportunity to bash the President should stop drinking the Kool-Aid for a few days. The War will continue, period. The Hurrincanes have a Massive Cost that MUST be paid. The space program is in a transitional period. I would bet there very few, if any, shuttle flights remaining. NASA, like EVERY OTHER AGENCY is taking cuts. Because Bush hates science? No, because the first to things are PIRORITY and the Government (IE Bush) is attempting to PAY for them. Not take out loas, not, tax more, they are trying to PAY for it. If you have a better way of doing it withou saying "TAX THE RICH" (who pay 50-75% of the taxes in the US anyway) lets hear it. Otherwise QUIT YOUR FSCKING WHINING!!!!!! the only thing worse than someone who uses hindsight to critque others, are those who then say how horrible that person is without being in their place for one minute.

And if you want the REALLY SCARY moment... while you're sitting there typing, there are probably dozens of threats that none of us will ever know about. While you critisize, there are REAL Men who go out and do. While you defame and harass, Real Men Die. So Do, or shut the hell up.

Good...NASA is a waste of good engineers

[Ogemaniac]

We have gotten almost nothing but a few pretty pictures out of NASA in the last thirty years, at a price tag of hundreds of billions.

Let's let the market put these engineers to work doing something useful.

And don't give me the "NASA invented X,Y,Z" crap. If that was our goal, we could give 1/10th of NASA's money to NSF, which unlike NASA, isn't spending the majority of its money on $600 hammers, and the majority of its research money on projects that have little direct impact on the average citizen.

Re:Anyone know the real unemployment rate in the U

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Basically, in Europe:

unemployed = No income


You mean "No Job, Collecting unemployment" I believe.

In Europe:
Small check but you survive because of cheap rent, cheap food & cheap medical care.

In the U.S.:

Unemployment = not enough money for rent, food and expensive medical care ($12000 for a family of 4!). Get a job at Starbucks for $8/hour and shut the fuck up. Oh, and you're outta here by the end of the month.

You shouldn't be at risk for starving because of unfortunate luck.