Battle Lines Drawn on ISS Science

Ready For Liftoff, US News

“Donald Kennedy, editor-in-chief of the journal Science, fears that the effect will be a transfer of money from universities–whose professors handle much of NASA’s scientific planning and analysis–to big industrial contractors who build vehicles and hardware.”Can Congress Save NASA Science?, Science (subscription)

“One likely victim, Griffin told Congress, is the centrifuge, once the central facility for station research. Life scientists will need to “go elsewhere,” he says. “I cannot put microbiology and fundamental life sciences higher than” the need for a new launch vehicle for astronauts. In contrast, preserving science aboard the station is one of the goals of a bill introduced last week to reauthorize NASA programs.”