I can tell you that in the last 10 days - 5 homes in my neighborhood have for sale signs in their yards. We've NEVER seen this type of activity before. Related to the economy? Maybe but I live in a new neighborhood FULL of NASA folks.

Makes ya go hmmmm doesn't it?

With less than one week before President Obama is set to unveil his budget on Feb. 1, and thus give an inkling of his vision for NASA and human spaceflight, there continue to be confounding rumors.

• More than a week ago ScienceInsider reported that the Ares I rocket would be scrapped and that NASA would get a $1 billion boost to expedite development of a heavy-lift launcher that could take humans to the moon, asteroids and the moons of Mars.


Fate of NASA at hand.

• Then, on Friday, Space News reported NASA would not even get the $1 billion budget increase. (And note that the $1 billion was just a fraction of the $3 billion annually the Augustine committee said NASA needed to have a meaningful human spaceflight program.)

• On Sunday the Wall Street Journal also reported that NASA would not get a significant budget increase this year, and that the space agency will be outsourcing its need to carry astronauts to the space station to private contractors.

For NASA proper this is about the worst of all worlds. If the latest reports are correct, and they dovetail with what I have heard from industry contacts, not only will NASA be getting no significant new money for human space exploration, it will also see the Ares I rocket program terminated.

If this is how it plays out for NASA in six days — and there's no way to be sure at this time because no one is talking on the record — the space agency's human spaceflight program will fall upon very hard times.

And it will be interesting to see the spin behind this plan considering President Obama's rhetoric on NASA during the campaign:


My vision will build on the great goals set forth in recent years, to maintain a robust program of human space exploration and ensure the fulfillment of NASA's mission. Together, we can ensure that NASA again reflects all that is best about our country and continue our nation's preeminence in space.

We'll know in less than a week.

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2010/01/human_spaceflight_to_boldly_go_nowhere.html

Bluebonnet,

Fear not, it is not the destiny of Earth Humans to travel outward in the cosmos inorder to contact other sentient beings. It is our destiny for them to come to us! All that we seek, we already have. We are them, they are us. It's time to become aware.

Texas lawmakers balk at cutting manned spaceflight

09:21 AM CST on Sunday, January 31, 2010

WASHINGTON – Everyone in Washington wants fiscal restraint these days – except when it comes to their priorities. Case in point: NASA.

Texas lawmakers in both parties are girding for battle with the Obama administration over the future of human spaceflight. Many of the same lawmakers routinely accuse the president of sending deficits into the stratosphere.

"It's a matter of priorities," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "We can find that money in other parts of the budget."

President Barack Obama unveils his annual budget Monday, and reports last week indicated that he wants to abandon the Constellation program that George W. Bush launched in 2004, effectively ending the human spaceflight effort.

He would add about $6 billion over five years to the space agency's $18.7 billion annual budget – granting an exception to the discretionary spending freeze he promised recently. That's enough to extend the life of the International Space Station to 2020 and spur private companies to develop craft to ferry astronauts when the space shuttles retire in a few years. But it's about $55 billion short of what NASA would need to return astronauts to the moon in the next decade.

In the current fiscal climate, with the national debt topping $13 trillion, the White House doesn't see that as a high enough priority.

Others disagree.

"I do believe that we need to cut spending [but] ... we should focus on things that are important and cut in areas that are less so," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the top Republican on the committee that oversees NASA. She called it "very short-sighted. ... We've already made such an investment."

Even her Washington-bashing rival, Gov. Rick Perry, seems to agree. He told Houston station KTRK-TV last week that he "could probably find a lot of earmarks where billions of dollars were spent" on projects that didn't help the Texas economy nearly as much as NASA.

Rep. Pete Olson, a Sugar Land Republican whose district includes the Johnson Space Center, also wants Obama to reconsider.

The Democrats, he said, "have wasted billions on a stimulus bill that sent funds to his supporters and has failed to create jobs or stimulate our economy."

"Human spaceflight," on the other hand, "accounts for thousands of high-paying American jobs," he said. "President Obama has sadly been focused on the wrong priorities for America."

Partisanship abounds in the larger debate about deficits, debt and pay-as-you go budget rules. Regional interests are more at play in the sub-debate over space funding, and many in Congress aren't about to cave to Obama on this.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat who has flown aboard the space shuttle, vowed Friday to "stand up and fight for NASA, and for the thousands of people who stand to lose their jobs."

Political pushback is also natural. Although Texas would probably feel the impact less than Alabama, a shift from the Constellation program to outsourcing would mean workforce disruptions and some canceled contracts.

"These are strong constituent interests to legislators," said John Logsdon, a space policy expert at George Washington University.

Cornyn acknowledged as much.

"Human spaceflight serves an important national purpose. I don't think it's good for the United States to have to depend on the Chinese or the Indians or private contractors to continue our pioneering of space," he said.

But it also comes down to this:

"When it affects several thousand people living in Houston, Texas, that's not something an elected rep from the state of Texas can just ignore," he said.

If issues like this are so contentious, is it any wonder they can't figure out Medicare and Social Security – the programs that are really driving the long-term debt outlook?

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-texwatch_31nat.ART.State.Edition1.4c16b27.html