Reactions to NASA's Proposed FY 2017 Budget
The State of Our NASA is Strong: Remarks on the State of NASA by NASA Administrator Bolden
“… it’s because of the work of our contractors and our partners in classrooms, boardrooms, laboratories and even garages across our country, that: The state of our NASA is as strong as it’s ever been and when I say “our,” I really mean it. Because of the work of you and your NASA colleagues to make aviation cleaner, greener, safer and quieter … the state of our NASA is strong.”
Director of Coalition for Deep Space Exploration Responds to Administration’s FY2017 NASA Budget
“The greatest challenge to these programs is not technical, but budget stability, plain and simple.”
Rep. Lamar Smith Statement on President’s Final Budget
“Today we received another unrealistic budget from the president that spends money we don’t have and increases taxes on Americans by $2.6 trillion over 10 years. This level of spending insults hardworking American families who don’t want to be burdened with higher taxes and slower economic growth.”
Commercial Spaceflight Federation Statement on FY17 Budget Request
“Within the NASA portfolio, the request continues the bipartisan commitment to the United States achieving safe, reliable, and independent human access to the International Space Station (ISS) from American soil by 2017.”
looking for asteroid near-by pass of Earth….don’t see it….
Representative Smith wants to keep NASA from looking down at the Earth from space. What is he afraid we will see?
It’s round.
Strong, hum? What about all the experience lost (i.e., people who lost their jobs) in the past 5 years due to Shuttle retirement and ISS downsizing? I know many people who have been unemployed for quite a while or who are now in fear of losing their jobs because our space program is uncommitted to either its workforce or having an achievable and unwavering goal. Keith, you should keep your RifWatch running.
So it is not about actually producing anything but just to maintain a workforce at all costs?
No. its completely about having and maintaining a long term goal that is clear and with clearly related short term “achievable” goals – simple psychology. NASA has not had a clear goal since Apollo (count the number of programs, projects that started, wasted millions of dollars and then were canceled (e.g., CxP)), and those same sentiments were prophetically voiced, in 1966, by Robert Gilruth, the first director of NASA. How did he know NASA would be beginning a 50 year path to no where bolstered by a monotonically decreasing budget? Scary.