Congress puts NASA and JWST on the chopping block!

[LongTomH]

JWST means the James Webb Space Telescope, the next generation successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. 'Bad Astronomer' Phil Plait is reporting that Congress is prepared to make draconian cuts to the budget for NASA and science in general, including cuts that would zero out the budget for the JWST:

When I saw the Presidential Budget Request this year for NASA, I was heartened: lots of money for commercial space transport and science. Obama hasn’t been a vocal supporter of NASA, so it was a relief.

Congress has countered, however. The House just released its Appropriations bill that covers science funding for NSF, NASA, NOAA, and NIST. Almost across the board: cuts. Massive ones.

This bill (PDF) actually keeps NSF at the fiscal year ’11 funding, although that’s $900 million less than the Presidential request. NOAA is being cut $100 million (2.2%), or $1 billion less than requested. NIST: cut by $50 million over FY11 (6.5%), $300 million less than requested.

But NASA is the one where the cuts are nothing short of savage. The cuts total $1.64 billion from last year, which is nearly $2 billion less than requested. That’s a cut of 8.8%. A billion of that is due to the Shuttle retiring, but the galling part is that the House is requiring that all funding for the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble’s successor, be cut entirely. In other words, they are canceling the JWST program.

At the time I was reading Phil Plait's post, I was also listening to Al Franken, on CSpan2, talking about the investments in science made after WWII; investments that set the stage for the general prosperity of the 50s and 60s. The massive cuts Republicans want to make will lead to lower prosperity and greatly deepen our economic malaise, which already looks to be decades long.

Ironically, I went over to Phil's site looking for some cool astronomical eye-candy photos to cheer me up after reading the (as usual) depressing news on DU. :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh:

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Some days you really wonder if it's worth getting out of bed!

Edited to add: Phil did do something about the issue. He called his rep. Jared Polis and requested that money be put back in the NASA and JWST budgets.

[n2doc]

1. Well we need those funds to blow up wedding parties in new countries

Sad. Maybe we can sell the parts of the telescope to the Chinese or the Europeans and they can finish it. Or maybe we can just stick in the Smithsonian, a monument to "no, we can't"

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. Let's just cut to the chase. If it doesn't result in death & destruction it's on the chopping block.

[shraby]

3. It has the Senate hurdle before anything happens...that's

where bills go to die.

[Orsino]

4. No taxes for nonprofits!

Our right-wing government is determined that any expenditure must go directly to pampering a CEO or his heir.