VSE: Getting Lost in the Details

Pawning NASA’s Crown Jewels, Scientific Ameircan

“The most egregious budget lines are the two surviving programs that are being maintained on billions of dollars of life support–the space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). A question: In NASA’s budgetary calculus, is it necessary or logical to maim the successful, scientifically productive and visionary part of the space program to feed the cost overruns of the Shuttle/ISS programs, which are scheduled to be canceled in 2010 anyway?”

NASA Budget Diverts Funds From Science to Spaceships, National Geographic News

“NASA simply cannot afford to do everything that our many constituents would like us to do,” NASA administrator Michael Griffin said Monday at a press briefing in Washington, D.C. Griffin said the agency had to take a “couple billion out of science and a billion and a half out of the exploration line” to fund the spaceflight programs. “I wish we hadn’t had to do it. I didn’t want to, but that’s what we needed to do,” he added.”

NASA’s “Bizarre” Cuts, Technology Review

“[Lou Friedman]: We fully support the goal of human space flight. But this “anti-science” budget will basically bring a negative reaction from the science community and reopen that “human versus robot” contentiousness — which had largely been done away with.

TR: Okay, so what balance should NASA try to strike between space science and manned exploration?

LF: They need to be seen working together. The president’s moon-Mars vision seemed to have that. It was going to be a mix of things being done on Mars robotically, with successive steps to set up a human lunar presence that would in turn lead to a Mars mission. It was all seen as leading to sending humans to Mars. Now they seem to be getting lost in the details.”