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#26 2007-02-06 12:05:11

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Ok SpaceNut.

The Planetary Science line is the one that funds Mars science, even though it's down a little in 2008, it's planned to grow steadily to become the largest in the Science Theme by 2012.

Exploration Systems has lost over $200m in 2008, that will slow down the development of Ares I and Orion, every delay delays the first Mars mission.


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#27 2007-02-12 06:59:41

SpaceNut
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

An while Nasa battled for its share of the budget dollars the Military go more than is fair share for space.

From spacepolitics: Milspace budget matters

Lost in the discussion last week about NASA’s FY08 budget proposal (which itself was quickly overshadowed by more sordid matters) was the space portion of the Defense Department’s FY08 budget proposal. The budget includes $11 billion for Air Force space programs in 2008, up from $9.5 billion in 2007, as Aerospace Daily and Space News [subscription required] reported last week.

I agree that we need the satelites but 11 billion worth?????

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#28 2007-02-12 10:14:01

SpaceNut
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Speech by Michael D. Griffin at the National Space Club on 7 February 2007

Highlights of NASA's FY 2008 Budget Request and the Year Ahead

The total space shuttle program employs almost 18,000 NASA employees and contractors.

All shuttle equipment is worth approximately $12 billion, and the facilities are worth almost $6 billion.

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#29 2007-02-17 01:58:51

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Congressional Testimony on FY 2008 R&D Budget

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA):

The President's 2008 Budget for NASA is $17.3 billion, a 3.1 percent increase over the President's 2007 request, reflecting a strong commitment by the Administration to the continued pursuit of the Vision for Space Exploration. The 2007 House-passed full-year CR, however, reduces the 2007 Budget by $545 million to $16.2 billion. If NASA is not provided its 2007 request level of $16.8 billion, the agency needs flexibility within its appropriation accounts to reduce the adverse consequences of a top-line reduction.

In 2008, NASA requests $3.92 billion for exploration systems including the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and the Ares I launch vehicle that will carry astronauts to the Moon. Having already initiated the acquisition process for certain elements of this architecture during 2006, NASA anticipates that all Orion CEV and Ares I elements will be under contract by the end of 2007, with the first crewed-flight planned to occur no later than 2014.

The 2008 Budget requests $5.52 billion, almost a third of NASA's total budget, to continue operating the 59 spacecraft of NASA's Science Mission Directorate and to support investments in future Earth and space science missions, vital technologies, and frontier research. NASA will develop seven new Earth observing space missions, including the Landsat Data Continuity Mission and the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, which will launch no later than 2013. NASA will continue its roles in the interagency Climate Change Science Program and the international initiative on the Global Earth Observing System of Systems. NASA will also support studies of the Earth-Sun system using data from the STEREO mission and the upcoming Solar Dynamics Observatory. A new Lunar Science Research program will leverage robotic investigations of the lunar surface in support of the Vision for Space Exploration. Following up its missions to Mars and Saturn, NASA is sending ever-more capable spacecraft to Mars, Mercury, the asteroids, and Pluto. NASA also will continue its vibrant astronomy program through its Great Observatories, and will upgrade Hubble in 2008 to provide five more years of productive on-orbit life, while planning new spacecraft, such as Webb and Kepler, that will search for planets around other stars and peer deep into the universe. Funding for the Beyond Einstein program is increased in FY 2008 to act on the forthcoming recommendation from the National Research Council regarding a strategy to unlock the secrets of the fundamental physics of the universe.

In December 2006, the President approved the nation's first National Aeronautics R&D Policy. Consistent with this Policy, the 2008 NASA aeronautics budget prioritizes fundamental aeronautics research, the improvement of aviation safety, and research that will help support the development of the Next Generation Air Transportation System. In addition, NASA will address infrastructure upgrades and maintenance requirements for aeronautical test facilities across NASA centers that are of vital importance to the Nation. The 2008 Budget requests $554 million for NASA aeronautics, an almost 5 percent increase over the 2007 request after adjusting for NASA's implementation of simplified full-cost accounting. ]


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#30 2007-02-24 15:09:05

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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

I always find it interesting to read the comments of others as they without most always echo the sentements that we have in many of our own threads.

http://www.spacepolitics.com/2007/02/23 … -increase/

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#31 2007-02-28 11:44:36

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Mike Griffin appears before the Senate space subcomittee today to discuss the budget. The hearing will be webcast live on NASA TV at 19:30 UT


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#32 2007-03-01 13:28:34

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Griffin Statement to the Senate Subcommittee on Space - 28 Feb 2007

By March 15th, I plan to provide the Committee a revised FY 2007 spending plan based on the recently enacted FY 2007 joint resolution. Quite simply, $545 million less funding than NASA’s original FY 2007 request means that there will be impacts to people, projects, and programs. Moreover, NASA’s human spaceflight enterprise has been directed to respond to the $545 million Agency reduction by absorbing a cut of nearly $700 million from the FY 2007 request. I must inform you that this reduction jeopardizes NASA’s ability to manage an effective transition from the Space Shuttle to the new Orion and Ares crew launch systems. While the appropriation reduction does not halt any work planned for the remaining months of FY 2007, it does adversely impact work planned in 2008-10, as the work on Orion and Ares system ramps up.


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#33 2007-03-05 18:26:49

SpaceNut
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

So this is where some of the money will come from NASA can't pay for killer asteroid hunt or at least it seems to be implied. I did not think it would be so large of an amount thou....

The cost to find at least 90 percent of the 20,000 potentially hazardous asteroids and comets by 2020 would be about $1 billion,

NASA needs to do more to locate other smaller, but still potentially dangerous space bodies. While an Italian observatory is doing some work, the United States is the only government with an asteroid-tracking program, NASA said.

One solution would be to build a new ground telescope solely for the asteroid hunt, and piggyback that use with other agencies' telescopes for a total of $800 million. Another would be to launch a space infrared telescope that could do the job faster for $1.1 billion. But NASA program scientist Lindley Johnson said NASA and the White House called both those choices too costly.

A cheaper option would be to simply piggyback on other agencies' telescopes, a cost of about $300 million, also rejected, Johnson said.

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#34 2007-03-08 22:47:56

John Creighton
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

I notice in 2011 the space shuttle cost seems to drop off. Is that because it only flys part of 2011?


Dig into the [url=http://child-civilization.blogspot.com/2006/12/political-grab-bag.html]political grab bag[/url] at [url=http://child-civilization.blogspot.com/]Child Civilization[/url]

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#35 2007-03-09 02:03:26

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

I notice in 2011 the space shuttle cost seems to drop off. Is that because it only flys part of 2011?

Shuttle will stop flying in calendar year 2010. The budget in FY2011 is for closeout costs. About 20,000 people and 654 facilities are involved, everything costs money. All those people will either be transferred to other work or lose their jobs. Facilities likewise will be transferred, leased or sold. There are almost 1 million pieces of equipment that have to be managed!


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#36 2007-03-09 08:09:30

SpaceNut
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

I think you will find other things to question from the NASA details shuttle-to-capsule transition

Constellation Media Lunch and Learn NASA Transition
http://www.floridatoday.com/floridatoda … sition.pdf

Located on page 3 I find that the shuttle SRB count is off so there must be segments that are already at Nasa waiting to be used for the mission count that they are indicating to fly.

Page 4 talks about the assets that Nasa will need to transition. Was astounded by the locations that support parts and more for shuttle operations.

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#37 2007-03-13 21:21:51

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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Griffin testified recently that NASA would need an additional $350 million for 2009 and $400 million for 2010 to avoid the six-month slip of Ares I from 2014 to 2015...

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#38 2007-03-16 01:06:00

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Mikulski Calls for Bipartisan Summit with White House on Future of Space Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At today’s final Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee hearing focused on innovation, Chairman Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) noted her concern for the future of NASA’s budget and the nation’s space program, pledging to fight again with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) for a $1 billion increase to NASA’s top line. At today’s hearing, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin presented his priorities as the subcommittee considers President Bush’s FY 2008 budget requests.

“With almost no real growth in NASA’s budget, there is no margin for errors. If there are cost overruns, other NASA programs will suffer. There is simply too much pressure on NASA’s budget – now and in the future,” said Senator Mikulski. “The only way to reduce the pressure on the budget, and maintain a balanced space program, is to raise the top line for NASA.”

The support for NASA and Griffin in both Houses is extremely strong, this is the time to free the agency from its too small budget.


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#39 2007-03-28 15:08:34

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

In the Senate hearing today "Transitioning to a Next Generation Human Space Flight System" Senator Nelson said that NASA told him it would need an extra $400m in 2008, and $800m more in 2009 and 2010 to bring the Orion/Ares online by 2013 - three years after the Shuttle is retired.


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#40 2007-04-06 08:14:40

SpaceNut
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Let the cutting begin...

NASA chief set to cut projects

To overcome a half-billion-dollar shortfall this year, NASA plans to eliminate a robotic mission to the moon, cut educational programs for schoolchildren and delay a new line of manned spacecraft.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has warned Congress for weeks that approved cuts of more than $500 million from NASA's $16.8 billion funding request would postpone launching the space shuttle's successor beyond a target date of 2014.

But a new budget blueprint sent from NASA to Congress shows cuts to the space agency would affect more than just the Constellation program, which oversees NASA's planned mission to carry astronauts to the moon and Mars.

A robotic mission to the moon would be eliminated to help free up more than $100 million

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#41 2007-04-25 19:28:49

SpaceNut
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

You would think that states without a Minimum Wage Laws in the States - January 1, 2007

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#42 2007-04-26 02:53:10

Mars_B4_Moon
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Let the cutting begin...

NASA chief set to cut projects

To overcome a half-billion-dollar shortfall this year, NASA plans to eliminate a robotic mission to the moon, cut educational programs for schoolchildren and delay a new line of manned spacecraft.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has warned Congress for weeks that approved cuts of more than $500 million from NASA's $16.8 billion funding request would postpone launching the space shuttle's successor beyond a target date of 2014.

But a new budget blueprint sent from NASA to Congress shows cuts to the space agency would affect more than just the Constellation program, which oversees NASA's planned mission to carry astronauts to the moon and Mars.

A robotic mission to the moon would be eliminated to help free up more than $100 million

NASA urged by Congress to continue planning robotic missions

A lunar robotics office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville is targeted for closing by NASA, but the program has $20 million in federal funding for the rest of the year.

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#43 2007-04-30 07:53:27

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

The Vision hits a bumpy road

Eric R. Hedman argues that NASA should have 1% of the federal budget (that's about $27 billion!)


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#44 2007-05-15 02:58:32

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Space Industry Letter to Congress (PDF) 11 May 2007

As leaders of our nation's largest aerospace and technology companies, we employ hundreds of thousands of Americans and know first hand the formidable challenges in today's global marketplace. We write to thank you for your past support of NASA and to urge you to enact a top-line increase for NASA's FY 2008 budget. Without this increase, our nation faces the very real risk of losing our uniquely critical industrial base and human space access capability.

NASA plays a crucial role in advancing our nation's innovation agenda. NASA programs promote our scientific, economic and educational interests, and contribute to our national and homeland security requirements. In the past few years, we have witnessed the rise of strong national space programs in China, India, and Japan, and a resurgence in Russia. We face major challenges to our space leadership and our national security.

In 2010, as the Shuttle is retired and we make the transition to the next generation of human spaceflight systems, the United States will become temporarily reliant on foreign human space transportation capabilities, if domestic commercial orbital space transportation does not emerge. In order to minimize this potential gap of independent American access to space, it is critical that we maintain funding and program stability for Orion and Ares I, sufficient to ensure a rapid and safe transition for American human space exploration. Future U.S. leadership in space is at stake.

This nation has an obligation to future generations of young Americans who, we hope, will focus their studies on science, math and engineering. Creating good, high-paying jobs in the aerospace and technology sectors will ensure that America maintains the technical human capital necessary for our country to retain its global economic strength well into the 21st century.

We are deeply concerned that there is a growing disparity between the programs that NASA has been asked to accomplish and the resources the agency has been provided.

The FY 2007 Joint Resolution reduced NASA's human spaceflight program budget by $670 million, the practical effect of which will be at least a six-month delay in the launch of the new Orion and Ares I space systems. NASA’s FY 2008 request is $17.3 billion, which is $1.4 billion below the congressionally authorized level. The costs resulting from Hurricane Katrina, Space Shuttle Return-to-Flight and the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission pose continuing challenges to NASA.

The FY 2008 budget request is not adequate to accomplish all of NASA's important missions. Therefore, we respectfully request that Congress appropriate the authorized $1.4 billion above the FY 08 budget request to minimize our nation’s gap in human spaceflight capability, ensure U.S. leadership in space, and contribute to our national and homeland security and international competitiveness.

Sincerely,

Signed by:   
J. Scott Neish, President, Aerojet-General Corporation
Daniel J. Murphy. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ATK
David L. Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Corp
Sandy Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Barrios Technology
Jim Albaugh. President and Chief Executive Officer, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems
Howard Lance, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Harris Corporation
Robert J. Gillette, President & Chief Executive Officer, Honeywell Aerospace
C. Donald Bishop, President and Chief Executive Officer, InDyne
Rogers Starr, President, Jacobs Technology
Robert J. Stevens, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Ronald D. Sugar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Northrop Grumman Corporation
David W. Thompson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Orbital Sciences Corporation
William H. Swanson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Raytheon Company
Randolph H. Brinkley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Rocketplane Kistler Inc.
Ken Dahlberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SAIC
Harold S. Stinger, President and Chief Executive Officer, SGT, INC
Elon R. Musk, Chief Executive Officer, Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
Michael Cerneck, Chief Executive Officer, Swales Aerospace
James Link, President, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc.
Michael C. Gass,  President and Chief Operating Officer, United Launch Alliance
Louis Chenevert, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Technologies Corporation
Michael J. McCulley, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Space Alliance
George Melton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wyle Laboratories, Inc.


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#45 2007-06-13 12:05:26

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

House Panel Recommends Increasing NASA Budget

By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 13 June 2007
11:45 am ET

WASHINGTON - A House appropriations subcommittee voted June 11 to give NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) more money for 2008 than the White House was seeking for either agency.

Specifically, the panel approved $17.6 billion for NASA, some $290 million above the agency's request.

NOAA would get $4 billion next year, or about $200 million more than it had sought.

The NASA and NOAA funding was included in a $53.6 billion spending bill that cleared the House Appropriations commerce, justice and science subcommittee June 11. The bill must still clear the full House Appropriations Committee before it can go to the floor for a vote. A companion bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate.

The extra money, however, did not come without conditions. NASA would have to spend every penny of that windfall - and more - on science, aeronautics and education and would be prohibited from funding any efforts aimed at sending humans to Mars.

NOAA, meanwhile, would be expected to continue development of some climate sensors dropped from the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System program last year amid massive cost overruns.

According to the subcommittee's press release, the bill provides:

    * $5.3 billion for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, or about $180 million more than requested
    * $690 million for NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, or about $150 million more than requested
    * $218 million for NASA education programs, or $64 million than requested.
    * $3.9 billion for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, the same as NASA's request.

No budget figures were given for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate. A source familiar with the bill said Space Operations, which includes the space shuttle and international space station programs, took a hit to help cover the aeronautics, education and science increases not paid for by the extra $290 million the subcommittee added to the bill for NASA.

At least some of the additional NASA science money, according to the release, is to be used "for the development of several earth science missions at NASA."

The bill itself was not released pending its consideration by the full committee perhaps as early as this week. However, according to the subcommittee's June 11 press release, "the bill language also continues a moratorium prohibiting NASA from implementing a reduction in force and from funding any research, development or demonstration activity related exclusively to Human Exploration of Mars."

"NASA has too much on its plate already, and the President is welcome to include adequate funding for the Human Mars Initiative in a budget amendment or subsequent year funding requests," the press release says.

It is not clear what practical effect the Mars moratorium would have on NASA since the agency's near-term focus is on fielding by 2015 spacecraft and rockets designed to replace the space shuttle and enable human missions to the Moon by 2020. NASA officials have said they do not foresee the United States embarking on human missions to Mars any earlier than 2030.

Bad news, the politicians are against human missions to Mars and more money will be taken from Exploration causing Ares and Orion development to further slow down sad


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#46 2007-06-14 12:08:05

SpaceNut
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Does congress really think that if they give nasa what was due quite some time ago that all is better. Nasa has already despend with many items and in doing so will have incurred costs. Meaning more money will be needed....

Subcommittee Passes FY08 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill

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#47 2007-06-14 12:26:41

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

The House is not giving NASA what it's due, it's hundreds of millions short from this year and there are more restrictions on how it can use the funds. More details in the previous post. Note this is the House subcomittee bill, next up is the Senate.


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#48 2007-06-15 10:00:43

cIclops
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Missing out on outer space

By Gene Kranz
June 12, 2007
In December 1972, America abandoned the moon. With the completion of the Skylab missions two years later, and after a brief rendezvous with the Russians, our nation’s human space effort was grounded. We had won the battle for space and demonstrated the power of a free people, but the Cold War, the emergence of global terrorism, an oil embargo, civil rights and other issues competed for our nation’s attention and priorities.

With the shuttle program on the distant horizon, the legacy of our first decade was surrendered and many of our leaders would move on. The most technically proficient and imaginative space team in the world would disperse. America had lost its will to explore.

Our nation now faces a similar gap in manned space flight if our political and congressional leaders don’t act soon. In 2010, after completing the assembly of the space station and restoring the Hubble space telescope to many more years of scientific achievement, the shuttle fleet will stand down, initiating a more than four-year hiatus in U.S. human access to space.

The American space effort will be stalled and U.S. space leadership will be running out of time. The American astronauts that will fly to the space station will be totally dependent upon Russia, Japan and Europe. We will have to rely on the generosity and goodwill of other nations to maintain a minimal presence in space, as America will be grounded.

Making things worse, Congress has voted to slash NASA’s Human Spaceflight Account nearly $700 million from the authorized level of the last fiscal year. President Bush has further compounded the problem with a request for the next fiscal year that is $1.4 billion less than the congressionally authorized level.

As a result, the four-years-plus gap between the shuttle and the new Constellation program has already increased by at least six months. And that assumes no more surprises like the hurricane damage to NASA installations in Florida and New Orleans in 2005. The millions needed for those repairs came right out of NASA’s program budgets — the same budgets that will now be used to pay other countries for our own human access to space.

To call the nation’s attention to this crisis in space, the leaders of nearly two dozen of America’s top high-tech and aerospace companies have put their differences and competitive instincts aside. They have signed a joint challenge to Congress to put partisan bickering aside for the nation’s greater good — to return U.S. space access to where it belongs: in the hands of our nation’s own space workers, not those of foreign lands.

Shifts in the world’s geopolitical climate are too unpredictable to rely on our allies for access to space — some who clearly intend on challenging our space leadership and whose governments are willing to make the necessary investments to be successful in space exploration.

I challenge Congress to heed the call from our industry leaders and the workers they employ. Give NASA what it needs to keep America first in space.

(Kranz was flight director for the Apollo moon missions and is author of “Failure is not an Option.”)


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#49 2007-06-18 15:22:06

SpaceNut
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

Space exploration proponents regroup to fight for resources

Cuts in manned space activities in the omnibus fiscal 2007 appropriations continuing resolution and recent complaints by leading Democrats about reduced funding for earth science and global warming research in President Bush's fiscal 2008 budget have led manned space supporters to express their concerns about the fate of Bush's 2004 "vision" for space exploration.

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#50 2007-06-18 18:15:15

X
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Re: NASA 2008 Budget

That sucks.

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