Lobbying, NASA, White House

Planetary Society congratulates Obama, asks for more planetary funding

What do you do when the candidate who won the election was the one whose budget cut your favorite program? In the case of The Planetary Society, the answer is to congratulate him—and ask him to reverse those cuts. In a statement Thursday, the organization congratulated President Obama on his reelection Tuesday while asking him to restore funding for NASA’s planetary science program in the forthcoming 2014 budget proposal.

“As our economy continues to rebound, we call on President Obama to invest in our future by making a commitment to increase NASA’s capacity to pursue groundbreaking robotic and human space missions over the next four years,” the society’s statement reads. “The first step along this path would be to restore NASA’s Planetary Science funding to $1.5 billion in the upcoming 2014 budget.” That restored funding, the organization said, could be used to support Mars sample return mission planning, as well as for another flagship-class mission, to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Such work, it added, would also “create high-tech, high-skilled jobs across the country.”

The Planetary Society has been an outspoken opponent of the administration’s proposed 20-percent cut in planetary science funding, from $1.5 to $1.2 billion in the 2013 budget proposal, including its “Save Our Science” (SOS) initiative. The House and Senate have partially restored that funding in their versions of appropriations bills that include NASA, but a final spending bill awaits negotiations in the coming weeks on far larger issues on federal spending in an effort to avoid the automatic spending cuts of sequestration that would take effect in January.

18 comments to Planetary Society congratulates Obama, asks for more planetary funding

  • Dark Blue Nine

    I’m sympathetic to the Planetary Society’s request, but it’s utterly unrealistic in this budget environment, especially if SLS/MCPV remain funded after sequestration or a budget deal.

  • Robert G. Oler

    Unlike some of the people here the PS and Bill Nye could read the polls…but I go with DBN…more funding is not going to happen until we kill SLS/Orion…sequestration should do it RGO

  • common sense

    All right that makes three of us. Not a chance to see planetary funding go up. And I am going to add that whether or not SLS/MPCV get cancelled. My suspicion is that SLS/MPCV budget will just go away. Period. It may come in slices over the years though. Not a one time cut. A deal will be made between AL, TX, FL and CA and the WH.

    We shall see.

  • Vladislaw

    300 million … just for .. planning a mission? Because it will “Such work, it added, would also “create high-tech, high-skilled jobs across the country” sounds productive.

    So people will sit around planning … what about the funding for the hardware for these flagship missions, after you are done planning? Or is this just one of those projects that you “plan” for a few years and then cancel it?

  • Mark R. Whittington

    The Planetary Society is like a battered spouse, begging the abusive spouse for crumbs and maybe a little less beatings.

    • Vladislaw

      No Mark, a better example would be, they are just like Lockheed Martin, coming hat in hand to congressional members for more cost plus money for the 10 billion dollar golden capsule they are building, the only difference is Lockheed has more lobbiests and can grease the wheels with more campaign funding.

      • Googaw

        What is the “the 10 billion dollar golden capsule” the Planetary Society is promoting?

        • Vladislaw

          Does it matter? If they were promoting James Webb would that make it better? Or did they want money for planet vac, I do not know. But Mark’s example was not accurate.

          • Googaw

            Yes, it matters. Your analogy implied that the Planetary Society promotes overpriced (“golden capsule”) missions that cost in the range of $10 billion. AFAIK the only overpriced missions in the $10 billion+ range they promote are their atavistic promotions of human missions (well above $100 billion) just beyond the budget horizon.

    • Robert G. Oler

      The Planetary Society is in an excellent position having READ THE POLLS CORRECTLY unlike well YOU ha ha ha another thing you got wrong…wow…..to be a player in the “how do we divide up the money when SLS and orion go away” game which is soon going to be played.

      If Obama holds his balls together and just calls the defeated GOP’s bluff, he can let inertia kill the Bush tax cuts, push sequestration into something useful AND move toward a space policy that actually summons an American space industrial power…

      there is going to be a fight and when the folks who are pushing SLS/Orion realize there is zero popular support for them then there is going to free up about 2 billion a year (after 1 billion goes to fixing the deficit)…to split up.

      enjoy the next four years Mark…I will RGO

      • Googaw

        to be a player in the “how do we divide up the money when SLS and orion go away” game which is soon going to be played.

        Dream on. Should SLS be canceled, the money goes straight towards solving the “fiscal cliff” problem and paying off the federal government’s creditors, lest its credit rating be sunk yet again. In the unlikely chance any money escapes from that process, it will be transferred to DoD space programs to make up for budget cuts there. Practically everything NASA is doing is a frivolous luxury by comparison.

        • Robert G. Oler

          Googaw
          November 9, 2012 at 6:50 pm · Reply

          to be a player in the “how do we divide up the money when SLS and orion go away” game which is soon going to be played.

          Dream on. Should SLS be canceled, the money goes straight towards solving the “fiscal cliff” problem and paying off the federal government’s creditors,>>

          there is no data to support that statement…one would think that the “faith based” analysis would have died with the Willard campaign…(still scoffing at that)…the reality is that some money is coming out of NASA, its not going across the board; there have to be some wounded shot…SLS is among the dying Kill it (and orion) send 1 billion on defict reduction reprogram the rest…

          Watch RGO

  • DCSCA

    No.

    Curiosity. JWST.

    ‘Nuff said.

    • common sense

      Remember it s 2012 and we re likely to experience a major shift in plate tectonics in addition to those layoffs. And all that because of the Mayans. Can you believe it? I know I can…

      • Mary

        Yeah, the Mayans never paid into SS or Medicare, if you can believe that. And even if they had spent years paying into it, they would have never agreed to the Obamacare.

        • common sense

          Yeah well, you know poor us we actually elected President Obama fair and square.

          So I guess if you are not happy you may still try to get the government out of your Medicare at the next election cycle. See how the message goes this time. Even in Florida. Just for fun. Please come back then and tell us all. Or maybe you just wait until you retire and send the famous check back. Leading by example. Right?

          In the meantime I’ll wait for the tectonics thing.

  • vulture4

    The Planetary Society cannot simply ask for money without explaining where NASA can get it, i.e. SLS.

    On the one hand, there is no possible way the money can be found in the budget to fund SLS/Orion through any realistic campaign of human landings on the moon and/or Mars. On the other hand many are convinced it will save America and the agency is spending money as fast as it can on new hardware to try to institutionalize SLS/Orion so they can say its “too big ot fail”.

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