Space Science Cut Update

Making Up for Lost Time in Space, NY Times

“While the on-again, off-again nature of the project hasn’t affected the [Dawn] spacecraft itself it sits half-built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., it has put many of the lab’s workers on a roller coaster ride. Two-thirds of the people working on Dawn had been assigned to other projects; they will now be moved back to the mission, said D. C. Agle, a spokesman at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.”

Is NASA in Outer Space? Not After a Surprise Round of Budget Cuts, Washington Post

“Something’s broken at NASA if such important and forward-looking goals as studying Europa’s ocean and searching for planets with signs of liquid water elsewhere in our galaxy are canceled in favor of programs that are clearly on their way out. Congress should direct the agency to restore its science programs, and it should establish a firewall protecting them from the fiscal demands of crewed spaceflight.”