Posted on 07/03/2025 6:13:53 AM PDT by PIF
If you like all the Science NASA has done since 1961, then wave it all goodby. NASA budget cut to the lowest since 1961 - before there was a manned space program. No more Rovers, probes, [ even 99942 Apophis probes cut, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis ]. There are no private entities that can or will pick up the slack. Cuts to Hubble and to Webb will leave them orbiting junk.
Coupled with the possible collapse of SpaceX from 47's vengeance feud with Musk, the US will no longer have a space program - civilian or military.
These twin disasters in the making will catapult China into the world leader in space. Youth interested in space exploration will flock to China. Others will go to the UK, Europe, India & Japan.
They were damned lucky. Those two astronauts weren’t killed going up into space on that death trap.
Space travel is not even the subject of the video. NASA has solved many many problems - been in a hospital lately? Used a cell phone? All that, and a list that would fill pages, are problems that NASA science has solved or made better.
No more, as remaining science problems will come from China now. You’ll be happy no doubt.
“Mission to Planet Earth”
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It was not a question of picking and choosing - it was just random, arbitrary cuts by a NASA hater.
Put NASA under Space Force.
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That’s what the cuts do. By getting rid of all the science current & planned - no more Hubble, no more Webb, no more Mars rovers, no more weather satellites, all would be shut down.
The dog ate NASA’s homework.
There is no hope for them now.
Yeah sure you did. All the “waste” must be in the random & arbitrary cuts which guts NASA and by extension the US space exploration program, current and planned.
NASA is a religion for some folks.
If you don’t see the problem there will be no way to convince you.
If you don’t see the problem there will be no way to convince you.
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Some people just hate science and there is no way to convince them otherwise. The Russians and the Chinese are, however, all smiles.
“It was not a question of picking and choosing - it was just random, arbitrary cuts by a NASA hater.”
Did I say this guy was picking and choosing?
NASA has been on a downward spiral since Bush II thanks to incompetent management, DEI, poor recruiting, top-down management, turf-building, and straying from its original mission. It needs to be reorganized with most of its management released, and a renewed emphasis on hiring bright technical people, whose time will not be wasted on administrative functions. Fewer and fewer qualified technical people have been hired through the years, with most of the emphasis on contracting work with unqualified staff. Recent emphasis on Science was a waste of money, meanwhile its formerly major contribution towards Aeronautics (the first A in NASA) has all but dried up. Just cutting its budget only leads to surviving the remaining weeds. Its early missions of Aeronautics and Space led to many major contributions, because it could take risks that corporate America were unwilling to take. Best to reorganize and revitalize with a new management that is bottom-up/technology driven, or stop wasting our money and just close it down.
I love science.
In fact I loved it so much as a kid (when I saw the moon landing on TV) I believed every word NASA said.
They promised me that by the time I retired I would be enjoying vacations on luxury resorts on the moon and Mars and maybe some other planets as well.
They didn’t deliver.
I have zero tolerance for folks who make promises and do not deliver on them.
NASA is about 10% science and 90% waste and politics.
It could be cut in half and still do the science, but it doesn’t want to. It is a DEI org only.
"Funding for space exploration. $10 billion is allotted for missions to Mars, $325 million in order to de-orbit the International Space Station, and $85 million to move a space shuttle from National Air and Space Museum to Texas."
Killing the space station was a surprise to me but by most accounts it's degraded terribly over time and is now a ridiculously dangerous environment for astronauts performing long-term experiments. I'd argue for an updated and state-of-the-art replacement built with an emphasis on safety, accessibility and expansion with a permanent escape vehicle attached.
Budget cuts are estimated to be around 30% overall, mostly in Earth studies, with a third of NASA's employees being laid off (please please let them be DEI wastes of tax monies).
"The White House Office of Management and Budget claimed in its budget request that NASA’s current spending levels on science missions –– more than $7 billion –– are “unsustainable” and that a $3.9 billion budget would be able to support a “leaner, more focused Science program.”
We constantly overlook how the space programs have led to improvement of our daily lives in ways both obvious and unseen. We're just now getting to where projects like the Space Elevator and economically viable radiation shielding previously thought to be impossible are feasible. Terraforming Mars is no longer for science fiction novels.
How far are we behind because the giant Texas Collider was cancelled 20 years ago? What advancements have we lost because of the budgetary myopia of that time?
And how much of our lunch are our enemies going to eat because they aren't as penny wise pound foolish?
Sounds like NASA needs to prioritize, like all govt depts. Money doesn’t grow in space.
Agreed. I'd like a full listing of exactly what "science" programs NASA would keep in place and exactly what science programs would be ended. If it's the "Only 10 years left to live, this time we mean it" pseudo-science, good riddance. If they're going to cut real science but leave the pseudo-science for whatever reason, then they're not good managers of the budget and need cutting just for that.
And even when talking about funding real science, exactly who should fund it? If it's about medical research that can be done best in zero gravity (IMHO that's real science with a practical application), fine, let it be funded by the Big Pharma companies that already has made billions off of taxpayers both from past space R&D and from recent govt "free" covid "vaccines".
Sure.
Suuuurrrre.
So change it. Don’t gut it.
Why does the head of OMB hate NASA? And why should he have so much say-so in their budget? Isn’t OMB more advisory than regulatory?
That is going way overboard.
Angry is again wrong.
Private enterprise is a far better way to address space needs.
NASA’s priority has been Muslim and LGBTQ crud for far too long.
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