As outrage rises over NASA Commercial Crew funding cut, time to make a deal?

Houston Space Examiner ^ | June 12, 2015 | Mark R. Whittington

[Marcus]

The drama surrounding funding for NASA’s Commercial Crew program has started up once again. In the wake of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s cutting funding for the program by over $300 million, supporters have fallen back on familiar patterns of futile complaining. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden claimed that the funding shortfall would delay the restoration of American spaceflight capability by as much as two years. Bolden was mild compared to some of Commercial Crew’s supporters on the Internet.

[Norm Lenhart]

NASA needs to be fully defunded until they leave the global warming industry and every global warmist on staff is blacklisted and repays salary for the years they did not do their jobs.

THEY pay. Not any PAC or the DNC. THEY. If that puts America out of the space race, step up prosecution efforts. Make scientists fear ever being involved with democrats ever again.

[ReaganGeneration2]

Plus, we conservatives we always complaining about what is federally funded that isn’t in the Constitution. Be consistent: NASA is not in the Constitution. If you want to change its mission to defense (space-based), do it. If not, de-fund it.

[Nifster]

And not mentioned at all but should be is that money sucking vampire of a mess known as the James Webb Space Telescope. A useless piece of extreme waste that is sooooo far over budget and continuing to drain from other programs

[Cincinatus]

Nobody has mentioned the real outrage here -- giving the title "commercial crew" to a program that is nothing more than government corporate welfare, a large fraction going to feed Elon Musk's Mars colonization fantasies, no less.

If these two contractors are truly "commercial" entities, I am sure that they can easily make up the funding shortfall from sources of private capital.

[driftdiver]

Oh but SpaceX is beloved around here. Its different ya see when the govt gives money to him so he can blow up stuff doing what NASA did 50 years ago.

[driftdiver]

yeah because the space program hasnt been instrumental in develop ANYTHING which has made this country strong. Certainly not technologies which are used in our nations defense.

[originalbuckeye]

What ‘American spaceflight capability’, Mr Bolden?? IIRC, your job as NASA Administrator is Muslim outreach, yes? Our Space program has been offloaded to a few companies who get lots of ‘incentive’ to work on Space exploration. What a morass our country is caught in.........you need not look further than the oval office to see the state of the union.

[SunkenCiv]

In the wake of the Senate Appropriations Committee's cutting funding for the program by over $300 million, supporters have fallen back on familiar patterns of futile complaining. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden claimed that the funding shortfall would delay the restoration of American spaceflight capability by as much as two years.

The parts of the NASA budget that should be surgically removed are muzzie outreach and global warming hoaxing.