Slashdot Mirror
US Manned Space Flight Taking a Budget Hit
An anonymous reader points out that Congress has quietly begun dismantling NASA's manned space flight program. "Other recommendations contained in the bill include a $77million reduction in NASA's proposed space operations budget, which includes the space shuttle and international space station; a $6 million reduction in science; and a $332 million shift in funds from the Cross Agency Support account to a new budget line-item included in the subcommittee's mark. Dubbed Construction and Environmental Compliance, the new account would be funded at $441 million. Congressional aides said the new line item and accompanying funds are aimed at consolidating NASA's various construction efforts into a single pot of money."
A lot of people (I guess universally hated on Slahsdot) told the Obama administration not to throw good money after bad. They didn't listen, and billions are now lost. So let's cut funds for scientific research (I expect the fury of the Slashdot general public, as well as their apologetic posts finding excuses for anything the Democrats did since the elections. Never mind, I have enough karma)
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
If there is no market for manned space flight, then using your taxpayer dollars for it is simple misallocation and waste of resources. Ask the Soviets what the ultimate outcome of such State resource management is.
The next pasture is always greener
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/washington/24gaza.html.
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(or, if you don't trust/like NYT - google "900 million" and pick any of the suggestions.)
Clearly shows where Obama's priorities lie.
Our economy is in the shitter.
100-year-old corporations are shutting down.
Educational system is utterly fucked-up (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/26/174212)
{too many examples}
And now NASA's budget is getting cut.
Meanwhile, Hillary and Obama want to give the better part of a trillion bucks to a "nation" with a proven track record of terrorism.
Yeah, change we can believe in.
(O/b/ligatory SFX: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- )
The full budget requested by NASA was 4 billion dollars (As per TFA, Congress reduced it to $3.2 billion).
Guess what? We piss away this much amount in Iraq every two weeks!
Yes but how much oil do we get for the blood we spend?
The difference is that you are basing the expenditure of billions of dollars of other people's money on a gut feeling.
space exploration is "sport" for national governments. don't "have to" do it, but do it for prestige. hey y'all...watch this!