It would be nice if NASA put the money to good work but we know how they are. Granted it still has to be approved.
WASHINGTON - A U.S. Senate panel has recommended providing $17.45 billion for NASA next year, or about $150 million more than the White House requested.
The money was included in a $54.6 billion spending bill that cleared the Senate Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee on June 26. The bill exceeds the White House request for the affected agencies by nearly $3.2 billion, with most of the additional money going to the Justice Department to fund local law enforcement programs.
The bill also includes $4.2 billion for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - about $400 million above the White House request. All of the additional money would go to an oceans stewardship initiative.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the subcommittee's chairman, said the NASA portion of the bill seeks to strike a balance between the agency's human spaceflight programs - which are fully funded - and its science and aeronautics programs.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate would get $5.66 billion, about $140 million above the request. Within that total, $1.64 billion would go to Earth science, about $130 million more than NASA is seeking.
NASA's Exploration Systems and Aeronautics Research mission directorates would be funded at their requested levels of $3.9 billion and $554 million, respectively.
Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the subcommittee's top Republican, said the bill includes funding for a robotic Moon lander NASA had canceled. A Senate aide said lawmakers added $50 million to NASA's Lunar Robotics and Precursor program budget so the agency can continue work on the lander, which is managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Mikulski told reporters after the markup session that she still intends to introduce an amendment that would give NASA an additional $1 billion to help make up budget ground lost after the 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident, but has not decided when.
"The NASA amendment will come later on," she said. "We're looking at what are our best options. You have to pick your launch date."
The full Senate Appropriations Committee is due to take up the bill June 28.
A companion bill introduced in the House of Representatives June 11 provided $17.6 billion for NASA and $4 billion for NOAA. That bill is due to be taken up by the full House Appropriations Committee July 11.
I'll wait to see the markup, but it seems that raising $130-40 million and $50 million in two different accounts implies at least a $30 million cut else where. I'm most interested in seeing what's up with funding in the future space access area.
I too would like to see NASA spend the money wisley, but I doubt that would happen.
From my experiences with NASA out here at Stennis Space center, money is wasted on an almost routine basis, and nobody wants to work. I cannot say how the rest of NASA is though, but I would like to see it regain some of its former glory.
"The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe"-Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune
And this is why I have little faith in NASA. They are just too much subject to politics, and from my understanding, there are several problems with NASA itself. I'm not quite sure what it is exactly, but I do know that money is wasted and bad decisions are made.
When they hired the new NASA director everyone thought it would lead them to a new age with him being a good business manager but looks like it didn't.
From what I hear, no amount of business training or experience can prepare you with the cold, hard reality with just how fucking hard it is to a piece of the p.... I mean to get government money.
