“NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate has decided to cancel 29 out of 51 Human and Robotic Technology (H&RT) research projects selected in 2004.”
NASA Internal Memo: NASA Realigns Research and Technology to Accelerate CEV/CLV (contains detailed budget reduction charts)
“As NASA concentrates the use of the Shuttle on ISS assembly, some ISS utilization will be deferred. As a result, transitional action is being taken now to reduce and/or discontinue approximately 34 contracts and activities previously planned at $344 million in FY 2006. After termination costs and buyouts, these actions will yield $243 million in FY 2006 that will be applied toward accelerating the CEV and CLV.”
Editor’s note: I love it when people at NASA use the word “deferred” because they don’t have the courage to say that something is being “cancelled.” With these actions, NASA is walking away from a substantial portion of its ISS research portfolio – a portfolio it has been using to justify the space station itself for decades.
