NASA Budget Cuts

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In July of 1958, President Eisenhower passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik nine months earlier. That administration, now known worldwide as NASA, has become an icon of space exploration and mankind's accomplishments. Who would have thought that fifty years later, NASA's future would be so uncertain? Congress has recently proposed a bill that would significantly cut funding from the NASA's Constellation program. These budget cuts are unnecessary and are counterproductive to the original idea of the space program.

Congress authorized the Constellation program in 2005, assigning it multiple goals, such as completing the International Space Station, developing a replacement vehicle for the space shuttle, as well as promoting international and commercial participation in space exploration for a return to the Moon no later than 2020 (Connolly 2). Despite Congress's good intentions in 2005, the future of the Constellation program is hanging by a thread. President Obama stated in his 2011 budget proposal that "[the nation's] fiscal situation remains unacceptable", and in his plan, the Constellation program has been cut from NASA's budget entirely, regarded as an unnecessary expense. This plan would allow more money to be used for other things, but it also has several undesirable consequences. Without the Constellation program, some 7,000 jobs at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral would be lost. Also, the $9.1 billion that NASA has already invested in the program would be wasted.

Despite how extreme Congress's plan appears to be, it does not really change NASA overall direction. Humans have not traveled...

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.... 17 Feb. 2010 .

HALVORSON, TODD. "As uncertainty grows over future of U.S. human spaceflight, NASA workers grow anxious". Gannett News Service. 29 Jan 2010 eLibrary. Web. 18 Feb 2010.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service. "Editorials on the federal budget". McClatchy - Tribune News Service. 03 Feb 2010 eLibrary. Web. 18 Feb 2010.

Freudenrich, Ph.D., Craig. "How NASA Works." 11 June 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. 18 February 2010.

Worthington, Peter. "Lost in space." Toronto Sun. 22 Feb. 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2010.

Bush, George Walker. Remarks On U.S. Space Policy.

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