NYT: NASA Chief Says Future Flights Will Force Cutbacks in Science

[DeepModem Mom]

NASA Chief Says Future Flights Will Force Cutbacks in Science
By WARREN E. LEARY
Published: April 26, 2006

WASHINGTON, April 25 — The ability to send humans into space after retiring the space shuttle is such a high priority for NASA that some space science must be sacrificed to help pay for it, the agency's administrator, Michael D. Griffin, said Tuesday.

The gap between retiring the shuttle in 2010 and flying a new manned vehicle by four years after that must be narrowed to prevent long-term damage to the space program and national security, Dr. Griffin said before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science and Space.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas and chairwoman of the subcommittee, and Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, the ranking Democrat, repeated their concerns that the United States could sacrifice its leadership in space if it were to lose its ability to transport humans while other nations continued to do so. Ms. Hutchinson called the ability for America to continue human spaceflight "a necessity."

Dr. Griffin said that the new spaceship to carry humans, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, should be ready by 2014, and that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was looking at ways to speed its development to deliver it a year or two sooner. The main limit to flying the new ship, which could take crews to the International Space Station and later to the moon, is money, he said.

NASA has reallocated money to keep the shuttle flying and finish the space station, while accelerating plans for the new ship, Dr. Griffin said. While all programs at NASA have been affected by budget restrictions, he said, a big share of the money to ready the new ship had to come from reducing the growth of science programs for a few years, in part by halting some new missions....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/washington/26nasa.html

[Canuckistanian]

1. Shut it down

Just shut down the major space flights until there's a rational administration in place.

This is insanity.

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. I have to wonder why the US has almost abandoned the space station

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With the USA's obvious quest for domination in space - the end of the multi-national space station, which could possibly monitor other activities in space by the USA - makes me curious

Could the break-up of the re-entry of the Columbia be another MIHOP?

Did one of those astronauts see something that the PNACers did not want him/her to tell the world?

No apologies, but with the Bush family pulling the strings since WW2 - I have no doubt in my mind that there has been evil at top levels in the USA Administration since WW2