Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD), whose district includes NASA Goddard, issued a press release Monday about the possibility of no funding for a Hubble repair mission in the FY06 budget. Hoyer said he was “very concerned” about those reports, adding that “I will fight to ensure that a new servicing mission is adequately funded and supported.” One interesting note: Hoyer said that he “worked to include a provision” in the FY05 omnibus spending bill that provided nearly $300 million for Hubble repair mission efforts “that would prevent the use of these funds to de-orbit Hubble.” Of course, that spending bill also gives NASA considerable flexibility regarding how it will spend its money, and as Space News reported a couple weeks ago, NASA was planning to spend only $175 million on Hubble work in 2005.
Hubble hobbling onward means continued high paying well-fare jobs. It is not about the science any longer. Neither is the Doo Doo bird attempting to soar again to Albatross and back. Ya gotta love this nation, but utilitarianism is does have a dark side – of course so does the moon, but it will be decades before an American sees that again.
I’m anxiously awaiting the budget release to see the wording. I think it will be basically, this is my plan for NASA and Hubble doesn’t fit into it so if you want it find money from somewhere else. Maybe Sen. Mikulski and Congressmen Hoyer can pass something akin to California’s stem cell research and raise the money locally.
NASA provides a lot of free services to academic intuitions, government agencies, public sector and private companies, so you would think that maybe they would pitch in to support a mission. This isn’t reality just a dream.
What is the difference between subsidies and bankruptcy bail-out money? One is short term and the other is long term? I guess subsides are usually aimed at an industry rather than and individual company.
I think this may be leading up to a White House stand of give us the 17 billion we requested for the projects we want to fund, if you want to add a billion for Hubble that’s OK too but don’t cut it from the orginal 17 billion.