President Obama Calls For New 'Space Race' Funding

New submitter dmfinn writes "While his union address covered a wide range of topics, President Obama made sure not to skip over the U.S.'s space program. The talking point was nearly identical to the one he gave in 2009, in which he called for space R&D spending to be increased past the levels seen during the the original cold war space race. Now, 4 years after that speech, it appears things have gone the opposite way. Since 2009 NASA has seen some serious cuts. Not only has the space-shuttle program been deactivated, but the agency was forced to endure harsh funding cuts during the presidents latter term. Despite an ominous history, it now seems that Obama is back on the space objective, pushing congress to increase non-defensive R&D spending to 3% of the U.S. GDP. It's important to keep in mind that not all of this money goes directly to space related programs, though under the proposed budget the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Laboratories will have their budgets doubled. There will also be an increase in tax credits towards companies and organizations working on these R&D projects. Should the U.S. go back to its 'Let's put a man on the moon' ideology, or is the federal government fighting an uphill battle against newly emerging private space expeditions? Either way, the question remains whether or not Obama will act on any of the propositions."

Comments

Re:Not gonna happen

[craigminah]

That's because the President keeps spending money. You can't spend your way out of debt, it's ludicrous, and why does our national debt keep going up? Aren't we paying it down or is the USA just making minimum payments. Once they get the voting block up to critical mass maybe they'll stop giving things away for free but until then I don't understand. Everyone needs to watch Animal Farm and see where we're heading...we're currently at the scene where the pigs scratch "...but some animals are more equal than others..." onto the side of the barn right under the part that says "All animals are equal."

Re:How are we going to pay for it though?

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Keep your 'lectric eye on me babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream oh yeah!