Congress has finally gotten around to passing an FY09 budget for agencies operating on a continuing resolution, including NASA. Jeff Foust has the numbers. I’m not sure the last time this happened, if ever, but it actually is getting more than it requested. There is no change in manned spaceflight (Shuttle plus ISS plus Exploration) but aeronautics and science are getting a bump. As Jeff notes, this doesn’t include the extra billion that the agency gets in “stimulus.”
So, for the first time in a long time, the agency is flush, and not getting its budget cut. I guess that when the old saying has gone from “a billion here and a billion there,” to “a trillion here and a trillion there,” it gets hard to argue for fiscal discipline in any area, even one that has traditionally been contentious. It’s just a shame that so much of the money is wasted, given NASA’s current plans.
I noticed that COTS is getting $20M less this year than requested, and Centennial Challenges once again doesn’t look like it’s getting a penny.
~Jon
Not surprising. It was the Bush White House that was pushing COTS. And Obama is on record of not being big on prizes. They don’t give the government enough control, don’t you know?
So much for that…
By the way, Jon (off topic), I’m going to be up in Mojave on Thursday. Hope to see you folks then.
Rand,
Good to hear. We may be doing some testing that day.
~Jon
I will be interested to see how many states fail to meet bdget this year. They need a solid budget like the rest of America is living on.