In a great piece, The President’s Take On NASA’s Future: Mission to Nowhere, former astronaut Tom Jones makes a good case that the new policy announced by the White House is,
[The President’s budget for NASA] seem merely an attempt to disguise the demise of U.S. leadership in space. There are words endorsing human spaceflight, but too little funding backing up that commitment. Our capability in space, by design, will now be no better than Russia’s, China’s or India’s.
Astronaut Jones’ piece is not short, but is one of the better and more clear analyses of the President’s goals for NASA, how we got into the current budget mess, and some ideas about how to move forward.
The post ends with a little reminder that the Augustine Committee did not intend for the President to through the baby, parents, and house out with the bathwater,
But President Obama’s advisors rejected the most important of the Augustine observations, that a great nation must fund an exploration program worthy of the name. Today’s budget actions will be rightfully seen as a retreat from U.S. leadership in space.
I could not agree more.
This is sad. With all the wasted money been thrown around in this country, we can’t find anything to give to NASA? It seems so short sighted of the Obama administration to discount what an important part of technological advancement our Space Program is. I thought science was “back in” the White House since the presidential switch! Perhaps they are only concerned with stem cell research…….