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NASA May Shut Down all Space Station's Research

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stupid-budget-tricks dept.

jdoire writes "NASA is considering shutting down all the research programs it conducts aboard the international space station for at least a year to fill a projected budget shortfall of up to $100 million, a top station manager said on Thursday. Why the shortfall, you may ask? Because of $3 billion of Congress's pet projets"

3 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Excuse me? by rbarreira · · Score: 5, Informative
    yes, I RTFA'd, wow

    Apparently not enough:

    Instead, NASA will pay for:

      Construction or renovation of dozens of museums, planetariums and science labs for colleges.

      Computers, classrooms and lab space for colleges and schools across the U.S.

      A website and laboratory for the Gulf of Maine Aquarium.

      A sprawling headquarters building for a non-profit research group in West Virginia created by U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan. The Democrat is now subject of a broader congressional ethics probe.
    --

    The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  2. This is exactly what many Slashdotters supported by guanxi · · Score: 4, Informative

    As I recall, most Slashdotters supported this policy. Don't think it has anything to do with Congressional pork, which has always been there. It's simply NASA's new priorities:

    When Bush announced manned spaceflight to the Moon and Mars, Slashdotters broadly supported it (perhaps someone can find the original post). But of course, there are not unlimited resources, so money must be diverted from something else, namely science.

    NASA now has cut all environmental science from its mission (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/science/22nasa. html) -- conveniently for Republican environmental policy -- and made manned spaceflight its top prioirty (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/ 17/1415223).

    The mammoth deficit and the Republican's refusal to raise taxes ensure that funds are even more limited. NASA can't have it all, so which do you want? Science, or manned spaceflight?

  3. Re:Rest Assured by Junior+Samples · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to msnbc, the Iraq war is costing $200 million per day. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11880954/ A half day of war funding would take care of NASA's immediate shortfall.