[JohnInIndy]

Well with today's launch of the shuttle signifying the end of an era and Obama gutting the Orion program what's left for US space travel? What about all the jobs that are lost? Engineers that will be gone? Where does the US go in space now? Even China will be ahead of us. And don't say it's about the money. NASA is one of the few quasi-government agencies that gave back more than it took. And its budget is minuscule at about 0.6% of the total US budget.

[deadwolfbones]

I think Obama's NASA outlook is a bit murky... ensuring funding here but demanding that certain other elements of the program be cut there. Hopefully they'll continue to produce worthwhile innovations with what budget they have left.

However, the NASA cuts (ongoing) aren't exactly a unilateral move by Obama. The most recent round of cuts proposed by the Republican-controlled House appropriations committee have been met by resistance from Obama/Democrats, in fact:

NASA May Experience Huge Federal Budget Cuts | Geekosystem

The cuts already outlined by the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee could have a hard time making it through the Democrat-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Feb. 4 wrote President Barack Obama urging him to exempt NASA from the three-year spending freeze the president outlined last month in his State of the Union address.

[JohnInIndy]

I think Obama's NASA outlook is a bit murky... ensuring funding here but demanding that certain other elements of the program be cut there. Hopefully they'll continue to produce worthwhile innovations with what budget they have left.

However, the NASA cuts (ongoing) aren't exactly a unilateral move by Obama. The most recent round of cuts proposed by the Republican-controlled House appropriations committee have been met by resistance from Obama/Democrats, in fact:

NASA May Experience Huge Federal Budget Cuts | Geekosystem

Funding cuts for Orion and the Constellation Program were made by Obama and the democrats. Orion was to follow the shuttle program. Now there is nothing. Our "space program" is floundering. Where we led we will now follow. It is a sad day.

[ryan s]

Wait...wasn't the conservative cry a year or two ago to defund NASA in order to prevent something like the bailout/TARP from being issued?

Ironic (and hypocritical).

[mikemike]

While I am disappointed to see the shuttle program end, I am more disappointed to see them canceling successor programs left and right. The engineers and workers for NASA will be just fine and will find their way into private industry quickly. There are a lot of private space programs like SpaceX taking ramping up production, lots of NASA folks are in Houston where the oil and gas industry will snap them up faster than the shuttle re-enters the atmosphere. The shuttle tanks were made here in New Orleans (by UAW workers btw) and those guys will find good jobs too because they are some of the best welders in the world.

Unlike the warm bodies being laid off in most of the public sector, NASA's team is extremely talented and the private sector will gladly hire them.

I don't understand how you think the Chinese are anywhere ahead of us, how can they steal the rockets we haven't even designed yet?

[Nesster]

..except there's private sector contractors who are laying people off in the space industry as well, as a result of the cut backs.

Besides, who would want to hire government slackers and malingerers, who haven't produced anything (by definition, working for the government, with their hands in our pockets), and some of them are union thugs no doubt.

[deadwolfbones]

Budget Compromise Includes 185 Billion for NASA | SpaceNews.com

WASHINGTON — The 2011 budget compromise Congress and the White House reached April 8 to avert a government shutdown includes $18.485 billion for NASA, or about 1.3 percent less than the $18.724 billion the U.S. space agency was given for 2010.

Details of the proposal, which includes a $38 billion reduction in nondefense spending, were posted April 12 on the House Appropriations Committee website.

Most of the NASA savings were achieved by funding Space Operations — an account that includes the international space station and soon-to-be-retired space shuttle — at about $600 million below the 2010 level and denying increases the White House sought for Aeronautics and Education. There's also no funding specified for Space Technology, a roughly $300 million account NASA hopes to boost to $1 billion next year.

Exploration and Science are the big winners in the NASA portion of the spending bill Congress intends to enact this week to keep the federal government funded for the remainder of fiscal 2011, which runs through September.

The bill, H.R. 1473, carves out $3.8 billion for Exploration, including $1.2 billion for a multipurpose crew vehicle based on NASA's in-development Orion capsule and $1.8 billion for a heavy-lift vehicle "which shall have a lift capability not less than 130 tons and which shall have an upper stage and other core elements developed simultaneously."

Exploration was funded at $3.625 billion in 2010, a sum that would rise to $3.7 billion under the agency's spending plan for 2012.

The NASA Science Mission Directorate — that part of the agency that funds planetary probes, space telescopes and environmental satellites — will receive $4.945 billion for the remainder of 2011, or about $448 million above the 2010 level.

H.R. 1473 also frees NASA to formally cancel the Constellation program under which it has been developing the Ares family of rockets and an Orion spacecraft optimized for manned lunar missions.

Another policy provision prohibits NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from engaging in bilateral activities with China.

Among the other budget details released April 12:

- Space Operations is funded at $5.5 billion, or about $600 million less than 2010.
- Aeronautics research is funded at $535 million, or about $38 million more than 2010.
- Cross Agency Support is funded at $3.1 billion, or about $100 million more than 2010.
- Construction and Environmental Compliance is funded at $394 million, or about $58 million less than 2010.
- Education is funded at $145 million, or about $45 million less than 2010.
- No budget is specified for NASA's Office of Inspector General. The watchdog office has received $36 million in recent years.

Sounds like NASA still has quite a lot to do.

[mikemike]

Budget Compromise Includes 185 Billion for NASA | SpaceNews.com

Sounds like NASA still has quite a lot to do.

This is true. When it comes to science experiments in space which are NASA's bread and butter, they can do a hell of a lot more without a manned space program. If a $50 Million rocket blows up and no one is on board they build another one and life goes on at NASA, the failure probably doesn't even make the news. You put some people on board and that $50 million launch price goes up by a factor of 10 because they need to be extra safe and a loss of life will mean a huge loss of funding.

That said, I think it is invaluable for NASA to maintain a commitment to manned space flight without doing it for a while the embodied wisdom of astronauts regarding space will be lost in a generation. Much like we are seeing trying to restart the nuclear energy industry.

[jeffkrol]

Well with today's launch of the shuttle signifying the end of an era and Obama gutting the Orion program what's left for US space travel? What about all the jobs that are lost? Engineers that will be gone? Where does the US go in space now? Even China will be ahead of us. And don't say it's about the money. NASA is one of the few quasi-government agencies that gave back more than it took. And its budget is minuscule at about 0.6% of the total US budget.

Most things are miniscule compared to the budget... I'm beginning to believe you must have a financial interest.. supporting "wasteful" gov. spending like that...

[Chwisch87]

You just can't help but feel the prestige of the USA is just going downhill.

NASA is very good at doing space based research and will continue to do such. The space shuttle, because of all the accidents that happened where you have to with it basically become an expensive mess. Frontline did a report on basically how the rampant bureaucratic culture at NASA space flight where virtually everyone was there to protect their own position and career, even at the expense of another persons life.

We are now going to have to use old soviet/russian launch vehicles now for manned flights. This is ridiculous. The incompetent idiots in congress are now going to look to the private sector that is at least 20 years away from having anything close to something that could be consider a shuttle replacement. The best i have seen from the private sector is Richard Branson who has a plane that has a rocket ship attached that is able to get a high attitude and come back down. Oh my.

[GeneV]

It is sad to think about an end to an era, though that end has been coming for a long time. The shared feelings are somewhat diluted by gratuitously blaming it on the current president. Congress has been slashing at NASA since the early Bush years, and as long as the economic focus of the government is on cutting its budget, this as well as many other worthy programs will be under attack by both parties.

Panel Cuts Bush's Budget Request for NASA (washingtonpost.com)
Space Politics House appropriators cut deeper at NASA

[JohnInIndy]

Most things are miniscule compared to the budget... I'm beginning to believe you must have a financial interest.. supporting "wasteful" gov. spending like that...

Although various parts of the government including NASA buy my product, and they are my largest customer they are in fact my least profitable. I could lose all of the US government contracts and still make as much by getting more profitable clients.

[redrockcoulee]

You just can't help but feel the prestige of the USA is just going downhill.

NASA is very good at doing space based research and will continue to do such. The space shuttle, because of all the accidents that happened where you have to with it basically become an expensive mess. Frontline did a report on basically how the rampant bureaucratic culture at NASA space flight where virtually everyone was there to protect their own position and career, even at the expense of another persons life.

We are now going to have to use old soviet/russian launch vehicles now for manned flights. This is ridiculous. The incompetent idiots in congress are now going to look to the private sector that is at least 20 years away from having anything close to something that could be consider a shuttle replacement. The best i have seen from the private sector is Richard Branson who has a plane that has a rocket ship attached that is able to get a high attitude and come back down. Oh my.

There was a space scientist whose name I do not remember on a podcast I listened to last month who stated that the end of the space shuttle was a good thing, he felt the shuttle program was a determint to space science as he provided examples of other programs that would yield more results at less cost but did not involve man flight.

I am not a follower of the space program so did not pay much attention to the details. There is the possibilty that part of the program's attraction is its high visibilty rather than its scientific achievments. The other question is how much would be gained by continuing sending people into orbit or to the space station. As I said, I am not a follower of the programs but think that perhaps there may be two different philosophies on how best to continue space exploration and not that either you support one aspect or you are an idiot.