So Congress sends a $16.5 billion NASA budget to the President for his signature, and the fun begins.
In that budget NASA has decided to save almost a half billion by canceling certain life-science projects aboard the space station, so that pretty much means that the thing will be doing nothing that cannot be done here on earth and it might be time to say adios to yet another failed project.
Not that invention and innovation are linear events...we're awaiting word from the next genius regarding a new propulsion system...but the shuttle turned into an expensive mess that never lived up to a tenth of the hoopla, and the ISS was an idiotic proposal to begin with. The single most valuable piece of astronomical hardware remains the Hubble, and THAT they wanted to see make a rather spectacular re-entry and land on some kangaroo-farmer in New South Wales.
I'm not as doubtful as many regarding mankind's venture into space, for I regard 90% of what NASA does as failures waiting to happen because that pretty much describes the history of the world in a nutshell. It isn't easy flying by the seat of one's pants, and space exploration remains costly and dangerous at a time when danger brings a tear to the collective wimpy American's eye.
It'd be nice to someday have a President with a genuine vision of what America's role should be, but for all of Bush's appeal to Republican voters the man isn't exactly the reincarnation of Tom Swift, and I can imagine his eyes glazing over as they discuss trips to Mars while he's wondering what Laura made for lunch.
Drop funding for the ISS until technology takes another leap forward. Save the Hubble. And for heavens sake get back to the realization that manned space flight is hazardous and don't even THINK of sending some school teacher into space. Unless of course it's one of the many liberal college professors we could STAND to lose.
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