Recession may ground space flights

[babylonsister]

Recession may ground space flights
By Roxana Tiron
Posted: 01/13/09 07:58 PM


President-elect Obama will have to decide the fate of the costly U.S. space program amid a global recession and skyrocketing deficits.

Obama faces a decision at the end of April on whether to continue the Space Shuttle initiative, which NASA otherwise plans to shut down. Congress last fall set a deadline for the new administration to decide this spring on whether to reverse course and continue the program, still the only way NASA has to transport Americans into space.

Extending the program would come at a high cost; two shuttle flights a year cost $3 billion, according to outgoing NASA administrator Michael Griffin. That’s even more expensive with a $1.2 trillion fiscal-year deficit as a backdrop.

Those who wanted to end the shuttle program said its continuation is shifting money from the Constellation program, the Bush administration’s plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 with an eye toward eventually sending them to Mars and other planets.

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/recession-may-ground-space-flights-2009-01-13.html

[mike_c]

1. shutter the Pentagon first....

eom

[bluestateguy]

2. Cutting the space program would be a good way to fuck over Texas and Alabama

Two states that voted the wrong way last November, and two states whose congresspersons fought the auto bailout.

[Dr.Phool]

3. One last flight.

Let George W. Bush go down in history as the first man to land on the sun.

[anigbrowl]

4. I'd rather see the money go into R&D

than to keeping the shuttle flying. It's due for a replacement: it was a cool idea but it's really too expensive for the limited benefits it delivers compared to other ways of getting into space. Space elevators FTW.