Bush's space plan for NASA several $B short.

[link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112301970.html|Washington Post]:

A large deficit in NASA's troubled shuttle program threatens to seriously delay and possibly cripple President Bush's space exploration initiative unless the number of planned flights is cut virtually in half or the White House agrees to add billions of dollars to the human spaceflight budget.

Sources familiar with ongoing negotiations between NASA and the White House say the administration has no intention of spending extra money to deal with a shortfall that some space experts say could exceed $6 billion from 2006 to 2010, when NASA plans to retire the shuttle for good.

[...]

The impasse has put the future of Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration" in doubt less than two years after it was announced. Without extra money, experts say, NASA could have trouble developing a new "crew exploration vehicle" by 2014, as originally planned, let alone fulfilling Griffin's wish to fly it by 2012. The dilemma is also fueling an odd confrontation between the administration and Congress, where once-wary lawmakers now appear willing to provide the extra funding even as the White House backs away from its own initiative.

"The decisions made over the next few weeks will determine whether the Bush White House is serious about supporting the vision," said John Logsdon, director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute. "We've reached a watershed."

The cornerstones of the Bush initiative, announced in a speech on Jan. 14, 2004, are to use the shuttle to finish the international space station by 2010, develop the crew exploration vehicle by 2014, return humans to the moon by 2020 and eventually move on to Mars.

Bush called the plan "a journey, not a race," to be completed without appreciable increases in NASA's budget.

[...]

What a surprise. Not.

Many other big programs at NASA, like the James Webb Space Telescope (the Hubble replacement), are having [link|http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=18557|major issues] as well.

Perhaps Wesley Mouch is really running things in D.C.

:-(

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #235,811 by Another Scott 11/24/05 12:19:23 AM Reply	Bush's space plan for NASA several $B short. [link\|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112301970.html\|Washington Post]: A large deficit in NASA's troubled shuttle program threatens to seriously delay and possibly cripple President Bush's space exploration initiative unless the number of planned flights is cut virtually in half or the White House agrees to add billions of dollars to the human spaceflight budget. Sources familiar with ongoing negotiations between NASA and the White House say the administration has no intention of spending extra money to deal with a shortfall that some space experts say could exceed $6 billion from 2006 to 2010, when NASA plans to retire the shuttle for good. [...] The impasse has put the future of Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration" in doubt less than two years after it was announced. Without extra money, experts say, NASA could have trouble developing a new "crew exploration vehicle" by 2014, as originally planned, let alone fulfilling Griffin's wish to fly it by 2012. The dilemma is also fueling an odd confrontation between the administration and Congress, where once-wary lawmakers now appear willing to provide the extra funding even as the White House backs away from its own initiative. "The decisions made over the next few weeks will determine whether the Bush White House is serious about supporting the vision," said John Logsdon, director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute. "We've reached a watershed." The cornerstones of the Bush initiative, announced in a speech on Jan. 14, 2004, are to use the shuttle to finish the international space station by 2010, develop the crew exploration vehicle by 2014, return humans to the moon by 2020 and eventually move on to Mars. Bush called the plan "a journey, not a race," to be completed without appreciable increases in NASA's budget. [...] What a surprise. Not. Many other big programs at NASA, like the James Webb Space Telescope (the Hubble replacement), are having [link\|http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=18557\|major issues] as well. Perhaps Wesley Mouch is really running things in D.C. :-( Cheers, Scott.
Post #235,911 by tuberculosis 11/24/05 5:14:49 PM 8/21/07 6:41:16 AM Reply	The boy simply can't budget "Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect" --Mark Twain "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein "This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush Edited by tuberculosis Aug. 21, 2007, 06:41:16 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #235,924 by Andrew Grygus 11/24/05 6:52:18 PM Reply	It's much more sinister than that Make the announcement, gather the publicity, gather the good will - then don't fund it and let it fade away with little notice. This is not "unable to budget", this is just plain out and out fraud and manipulation, Watch the same thing happen to New Orleans - it'll be festering for decades. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #235,939 by broomberg 11/24/05 8:00:58 PM Reply	Even worse He'll try to push some legislation to fund it that will have no chance of passing, and blame the opposition for killing it. He'll get to play the underdog.

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