NASA Willing To Team With China; Rumors of a Budget Cut

eldavojohn writes "2009 has been an interesting year for NASA — from a new strategy to even closer ties with an old enemy. So it's perhaps no surprise that NASA has publicly stated that they are ready to team up with China. NASA Chief Charles Bolden said, 'I am perfectly willing, if that's the direction that comes to me, to engage the Chinese in trying to make them a partner in any space endeavor. I think they're a very capable nation. They have demonstrated their capability to do something that only two other nations that have done — that is, to put humans in space. And I think that is an achievement you cannot ignore. They are a nation that is trying to really lead. If we could cooperate we would probably be better off than if we would not.' While the budget of the China National Space Administration is a fraction of NASA's, partnering with them has been considered since 2008. In possibly related news, rumors are circulating of the Obama administration cutting NASA's budget by ten percent for fiscal year 2011 despite the success of Monday's Atlantis launch. Considering the Augustine panel's recommendations, such a cut could halt US human space flight for a decade."

Comments

Just 10%?

[glrotate]

Dear ObaMao;

Please cut the white collar aerospace welfare program by at least 75%.

They haven't done anything really interesting in manned flight in almost 40 years, and until we invent warp drives, manned exploration will continue to be a waste of tome and money.

The unmanned exploration is mostly useless. Nobody other than soil scientists care whether the crust of Mars is 27.6% silica or 27.7& silica.

Thank you.

By all means

[iamacat]

Space missions are non-contraversial, expensive and a perfect way for a country to show off its might without killing anyone in the process. It's a perfect case to cooperate with any country, friendly or hostile, that has the resources to contribute. Soviet-US joint missions were pretty much the norm during cold war. I don't see any reason to leave out China, Iran or North Korea if they are willing to contribute money and talent.

Re:Worst Idea going

[Shakrai]

Hopefully, Obama is smarter than to do this.

Yeah right. Obama is just as addicted to "cheap" Chinese money as every other jackass politician (Republican and Democrat) we've had in recent memory. Cutting that supply off would require us to actually made hard choices about taxes and spending. Such choices might actually have consequences at the ballot box. We wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?

I had hoped that Obama would be an actual leader willing to make hard choices but he's just another empty suit that's ignoring reality in favor of catering to his base and pushing his agenda. Don't worry though, we can't ignore economic reality indefinitely. If you think the economic crisis last year was serious just wait until the ponzi scheme that is the US->Chinese economic relationship actually blows up. I hope you've stockpiled as much ammo, canned food and greenbacks (gotta burn something to keep warm) as possible.