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NASA To Continue Funding Canceled Ares Project Until March
wooferhound passes along this quote from the Orlando Sentinel:
"Thanks to congressional inaction, NASA must continue to fund its defunct Ares I rocket program until March — a requirement that will cost the agency nearly $500 million at a time when NASA is struggling with the expensive task of replacing the space shuttle. About one-third of that money — $165 million — will go to Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, which has a $2 billion contract to build the solid-rocket first stage for the Ares I, the rocket that was supposed to fill the shuttle's role of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station. ... The odd scenario, in which NASA is throwing money at a canceled rocket program but can't fund a modernization program, is because of several twists in the legislative process that started a year ago and came to a head this month. At the root of the problem is a 70-word sentence inserted into the 2010 budget — by lawmakers seeking to protect Ares I jobs in their home states — that bars NASA from shutting down the program until Congress passed a new budget a year later. That should have happened before the Oct. 1 start of the federal fiscal year. But Congress never passed a 2011 budget and instead voted this month to extend the 2010 budget until March — so NASA still must abide by the 2010 language."
Seems odd that the US space agency needs a "modernization program". Obviously, it should be called something else since NASA still plans on using Russia's own antiquated hardware to keep the ISS going.
Anyhow, I don't understand why we should be so happy that NASA is funding a program that it's not planning on using---regardless of where the funding is coming from.
Well, it's only money. After all, it's not like they are taking your money, out of your wallet.
Strange, if I was the head of NASA I would jump to this and use that $500 million to do something productive. There is just no way that that could come back to bite me. Not when there are so many senators and other obvious targets for the news agencies to make fun of.
You must not have gotten the news that corporations and govt have merged. $500M is going to his friends, former and future coworkers / employers. Side effects such as producing a working vehicle are not relevant to the primary goal of transferring $500M, about half from Chinese bond holders and half from taxes, to his "family".
Now if the $500M when to the department of agriculture or something, he has no "family" there so he would complain.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
How bad would the penalties be?
>>>mostly republicans
Citation please. That would be a remarkable feat, considering the republicans were a super-minority completely and totally dominated by the Democrats (controlled ~60% of the Congress). Speaking as someone outside the power base (i.e. unelected libertarian), I consider myself an impartial observer of the Rep-Dem Duopoly. And I don't comprehend how the republicans can be blamed when it was the Democrats that held the power of Congress for four years. And another ~40 years from 1956 to 1994.
This last century was the century of the Democrat-run Congresses.
So how again is it that we blame the Reps? Makes as little sense as blaming the minority libertarians.
i.e. Citation please.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Here, you fucking retard. Yes, that is TFA.
It was Republican Richard Shelby bringing the pork back home. You know a member of the party of *snicker* fiscal responsbility:
The language that keeps Constellation going was inserted into the 2010 budget last year by [corrupt] U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican who sought to protect the program and Ares jobs at Marshall Space Flight Center in his home state.
His office confirmed that the language was still in effect but did not respond to e-mails seeking details.
http://www.truthistreason.net/thanks-to-congress-inaction-500-million-goes-to-defunct-rocket-program-lockheed-martin
red. You know, the people that want to 'cut taxes' and 'have a smaller government'.
This is what happens when the voters go for lines like 'cut taxes'. It's a stupid misdirection that leads t nowhere good. You can't generically cut taxes and reduce pork. You must go after specific pork.
But hey, everyones' for cutting pork until it's their job.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
What choice is it when we only get to pick one loser or another, chosen by one of the two heads of the same monster? That's not a representative government anymore, not even close.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!