MAVEN Mission To Mars Will Proceed, Despite Shutdown

necro81 writes "Due to the ongoing shutdown of the U.S. Government, NASA is largely grounded. This is bad for all kinds of reasons, but one particularly bad outcome would have been missing the launch window for the MAVEN spacecraft, due to launch 18 November. The next launch window would not have been until 2016. MAVEN, thankfully, has been given the go-ahead, in large part because this orbiter will serve as a vital communications link for the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers currently on the surface. Currently, these rovers are served by two aging orbiters: Mars Odyssey (launched 2001) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (launched 2005). Maintaining communications with the rovers is considered essential, hence the preparations and launch will proceed. (NASA's official mission website is currently offline.)"

Comments

Re:The Shutdown is a lie

[milkmage]

"to furlough ( that is let federal employees have days off ) with pay"

furlough is UNPAID leave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furlough
a furlough (/frlo/; from Dutch: "verlof", leave of absence) is a temporary unpaid leave of some employees due to special needs of a company, which may be due to economic conditions at the specific employer or in the economy as a whole.

the Affordable Care Act was made LAW last year. get it? LAW. So some politicians are ignoring the LAW and holding the REST OF THE GOVERNMENT hostage.

Re:The Shutdown is a lie

[dukeblue219]

"And there is indeed an exemption for certain government employees (I just know of Congress and its staff having a specific exemption)."

Congress does not have an Obamacare waiver. In fact, Congressmen and their staffs are now *required* to purchase health insurance from the new health care exchanges and have lost their existing government health plans. This is a bizarre misconception I hear all the time from the right, so I'm guessing it's coming from talk radio but I have no idea. Yes, the government is subsizing part of their coverage just as most other employers do, but I will repeat: Congress is REQUIRED to purchase health care provided by the ACA.