INFORMATIVE HUB: NASA Supporters Fear Bush May Cut Space Plan
Hello everyone,
This will be my first of many posts which are of a political nature. So without further delay...
After reading this article I was.. *ACK!* ***pause*** What the... My apologies, I seem to have some type of horrble taste in my mouth... ***pause*** Well what'a ya know... Another taste of Bush's blacklashes which I'm sure of more to come in our future days.
President Bush has finally won endorsement of his "Vision for Space Exploration" from a once-skeptical Congress, but supporters now fear the administration is backing away from its own initiative to send humans back to the moon and then on to Mars.
For at least three months, the White House Office of Management and Budget and NASA have struggled to find a way to make up a budget shortfall of between $3 billion and $5 billion and perhaps more, in the troubled space shuttle program -- and to do so without inflating overall space spending well beyond the $16.5 billion that NASA has this year.
Congress last month unanimously passed a bipartisan bill -- which Bush signed -- endorsing the vision for the first time and urging the president to fund NASA for $17.9 billion in 2007 and $18.7 billion in 2008.
Lawmakers gave several reasons for embracing a program they had widely criticized after Bush announced it in early 2004, but all cited as a contributing factor the arrival last year of new NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, a blunt-spoken space scientist and engineer.
"He is very, very competent and knows how these things work," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), who heads the Senate Commerce subcommittee on science and space and is a key player in the space debate. "If he comes back to us and says there's a need for more money, I think he can get it."
But the question now being asked on Capitol Hill is whether Bush will ask for enough money to keep the vision on track when the administration rolls out its 2007 budget Feb. 6, or whether he will shortchange the shuttle program or cripple the new exploration initiative or both. Bush has said he intends to freeze discretionary spending unrelated to national security for the next five years.
Shortchanging the space budget, lawmakers said, should not be an option. "This is a period of transformation," said Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics. "We are at the dawn of a new space age, and we have to do it right."
Industry and congressional sources said the administration has abandoned an early OMB proposal to slash the number of planned shuttle flights by more than half, but hemmed in by other budget priorities, especially the war in Iraq, it still appears unwilling to fund a full slate of 19 flights.
Continued...
This will be my first of many posts which are of a political nature. So without further delay...
After reading this article I was.. *ACK!* ***pause*** What the... My apologies, I seem to have some type of horrble taste in my mouth... ***pause*** Well what'a ya know... Another taste of Bush's blacklashes which I'm sure of more to come in our future days.
President Bush has finally won endorsement of his "Vision for Space Exploration" from a once-skeptical Congress, but supporters now fear the administration is backing away from its own initiative to send humans back to the moon and then on to Mars.
For at least three months, the White House Office of Management and Budget and NASA have struggled to find a way to make up a budget shortfall of between $3 billion and $5 billion and perhaps more, in the troubled space shuttle program -- and to do so without inflating overall space spending well beyond the $16.5 billion that NASA has this year.
Congress last month unanimously passed a bipartisan bill -- which Bush signed -- endorsing the vision for the first time and urging the president to fund NASA for $17.9 billion in 2007 and $18.7 billion in 2008.
Lawmakers gave several reasons for embracing a program they had widely criticized after Bush announced it in early 2004, but all cited as a contributing factor the arrival last year of new NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, a blunt-spoken space scientist and engineer.
"He is very, very competent and knows how these things work," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), who heads the Senate Commerce subcommittee on science and space and is a key player in the space debate. "If he comes back to us and says there's a need for more money, I think he can get it."
But the question now being asked on Capitol Hill is whether Bush will ask for enough money to keep the vision on track when the administration rolls out its 2007 budget Feb. 6, or whether he will shortchange the shuttle program or cripple the new exploration initiative or both. Bush has said he intends to freeze discretionary spending unrelated to national security for the next five years.
Shortchanging the space budget, lawmakers said, should not be an option. "This is a period of transformation," said Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics. "We are at the dawn of a new space age, and we have to do it right."
Industry and congressional sources said the administration has abandoned an early OMB proposal to slash the number of planned shuttle flights by more than half, but hemmed in by other budget priorities, especially the war in Iraq, it still appears unwilling to fund a full slate of 19 flights.
Continued...
posted by Anonymous | 1/29/2006 04:30:00 AM
1 Comments:
Yeah I was fearing this would happen. Remember when Bush promised 1 Billion for a Mars program. Well he lied. He in fact promised 2 Billion and Made NASA pony up the other 8 by slashing projects (fuel efficiency was one of them). Now if Bush were to cut his little Mars program, he would effectively steal 8 Billion from NASA which would shut it down.
It must be Rove's idea. Bush just probably just wanted to invade Mars.
Post a Comment
<< Home