silvermoon383
Well-Known Member
Yes, I'm well aware of how sick everyone is of hearing me say that President Obama's administration and Congress will be the death of NASA. Yes, I'm well aware that the most vocal of the people who reply want to see NASA shut down so that its funding (0.53% of the federal budget) can be given to the "starving and desperate for money" social programs (19.63% for Social Security, 16.13% for Unemployment, 12.79% for Medicare, and 8.19% for Medicaid: 56.74% total, 3 times that of the defense budget of 18.74%).
Well, guess what, here I am again, because this time it's happening. The newest Appropriations bill from the House has slashed NASA's budget by 8.8%, a loss of nearly $2 billion. Granted, the loss of the shuttle and Constellation was a major source of the budget loss, but this new bill put another project on the block, one whose importance rivals that of the shuttle and Constellation: the James Webb Space Telescope. This telescope is Hubble's replacement and one of the biggest science projects ever and should be ready to launch by 2015.
Once again the government is putting a gun up to the US's future's head and with everything going on it's quite likely that they'll pull the trigger this time. Losing manned space was bad enough, now a major component of our science infrastructure might be lost as well. If Congress gets their wish this will be an unmitigated disaster that will ruin the country's science capabilities, and at a time when we need to bolster it, not cut it.
Please, please, please, contact your Representatives so that this bill can be burned at the stake like it deserves.
Source
Well, guess what, here I am again, because this time it's happening. The newest Appropriations bill from the House has slashed NASA's budget by 8.8%, a loss of nearly $2 billion. Granted, the loss of the shuttle and Constellation was a major source of the budget loss, but this new bill put another project on the block, one whose importance rivals that of the shuttle and Constellation: the James Webb Space Telescope. This telescope is Hubble's replacement and one of the biggest science projects ever and should be ready to launch by 2015.
Once again the government is putting a gun up to the US's future's head and with everything going on it's quite likely that they'll pull the trigger this time. Losing manned space was bad enough, now a major component of our science infrastructure might be lost as well. If Congress gets their wish this will be an unmitigated disaster that will ruin the country's science capabilities, and at a time when we need to bolster it, not cut it.
Please, please, please, contact your Representatives so that this bill can be burned at the stake like it deserves.
Source
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