U.S. Satellite Programs in Jeopardy of Collapse

smooth wombat writes "A committee of the National Academy of Sciences, headed by Richard Anthens, has warned that 'the vitality of Earth science and application programs has been placed at substantial risk by a rapidly shrinking budget.' The list of Earth-observing satellite programs affected is a long one and includes satellite programs which observe nearly every aspect of Earth's climate. A delay in launching a replacement satellite or the disabling of a current satellite without a replacement could mean that data necessary to monitor or predict an upcoming event would be severely restricted. For its part NASA says that tight budgets force it to cut funding for all but the most vital programs. 'We simply cannot afford all of the missions that our scientific constituencies would like us to sponsor,' NASA administrator Michael Griffin told members of Congress when he testified before the House Science Committee February 16."

Get a bigger budget easily....

[ZiakII]

Just lie and say you're using that money to come out with some military weapon...

What else did you expect?

[Anonymous Coward]

>>The list of Earth-observing satellite programs affected is a long one and includes satellite programs which observe nearly every aspect of Earth's climate

Don't worry about that pesky climate change thing. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Re:Guns or butter? Bush chooses guns.

[hcob$]

Darn. I missed my opportunity to drop the green flag on the bush bashing because NASA has to have a real budget.

Dubai Space Ports World (http://www.dspw.ae)

[Anonymous Coward]

I think a reasonable solution would be to have the cash rich, reputable, business savvy Dubai Space Authority manage our commercial (and [ok fine] environmental) satellites. You know they're going to get that ports deal approved. When money talks bullshit walks... or something like that. This country needs foreign investments like a bleeding messiah. I bet $1 that Dubai will continue to rescue us from financial dissolution into the future. We love to talk about the 'billionz' we spend .. yet it's all borrowed money. Reputable, cash rich, business savvy arabs (or maybe they're not savvy for doing this) try to save our ass and we bark at them like rotten dogs. I guess people prefer to die in dignity than be helped by those whom they perceive to be inferior .. or scary... either way xenophobia is going to assure that our infrastructure will die in pieceS. I say we open up space for foreign investments. China is launching 26 satellites this year, while we stab our friendly arab financial supporters in the ass. Say what you want bozos.

Re:Guns or butter? Bush chooses guns.

[Anonymous Coward]

That is expected. The closest that this admin has to war experience (excluding when powell and his people worked there), is cheney's shooting of a friend who had a gun in hand.

Re:Guns or butter? Bush chooses guns.

[meringuoid]

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/history.gif

Hey, that chart was levelling off. A classic S-shaped curve, exponential growth hitting limits and slowing to a new equilibrium. I'd guess that in mid-2000 things were looking pretty good. Then in 2001 it's up again, and every year since then it's gone up, and up, and up some more.

What the hell went wrong in late 2000, guys? What changed?