President Obama signs $19 billion NASA funding bill into law

Is this going to create more jobs in the Houston area?

 

I could have sworn I read here that he was cutting funding for NASA? Or does $19 billion constitute a 'cut' in funding?

 

I don't think the idea was really to cut funding for NASA, but redirected it away from manned spaceflight which is what this does. NASA won't be responsible for that any more; private companies will be. Personally, I like that a lot better. NASA should focus on deep space exploration.

 

Mr. Meowgi faints.

 

Is this like signing the Small Business Jobs Bil recently that no one cares about?

 

Not exactly giving them 19 billion. Like most things with NASA it is just telling them what to do if they want to exist in the future, then cut the funding promised before they can finish.

 

Fixed.

 

Is Southern Meowgi still angry?

 

Approving a project at a certain budget, then cutting the budget then complaining it went over budget makes little sense.

 

AFAIK, NASA's budget was always scheduled to increase, it's just that the moon missions were being scrapped and the budget increase wasn't going to be as much as it would have been if those missions hadn't been cut. It's still more than what they were getting.

 

I'm glad that there's another shuttle flight approved. That's one more year we aren't completely dependent on Putin's Russia to ferry people and supplies to the space station. While I like the budget increase, it was already supposed to increase. Certainly, the increase is better than cutting the budget. I'm all for private enterprise getting into the business of moving people and freight into low Earth orbit, but I think that the real result of this will be years of dependence on the Russian oligarchy, something that doesn't please me at all.

 

Mr. Select Face will find a reason to be pissed about something, somehow.

 

That's it?

 

Sounds like the death of the manned space mission.

 

Although it was admittedly hamfisted, you completely missed my point.

 

Good. Note sure what the point in manned space flight to the moon or space station is, anyway. Been there, done that. Focus on deeper space (Mars, Europa) instead. Once it's nice and explored, then we can start focusing on sending humans there once again.

 

So is Houston no longer going to be Space City now? When are they going to strip the Rockets and Astros of their name?

 

Nope, not at all. It's actually pretty bleak here. I feel bad for all the developers that started their projects 5 years ago expecting a surge of new young engineers as the older ones retire. A few very nice apartments, restaurants, and shopping centers all for nothing.

Hard to just look at the big picture when it hurts locally. But nevertheless, we've got bigger problems to take care of right now. An accountant in downtown Houston or a dentist in Katy or a construction worker near ship channel don't give a rat's ass about space exploration and will vote accordingly.

 

Because it's cool. Just because men have landed on the moon does not mean that it has been fully explored, which seems to be your point. I don't think anything can be fully explored, I think that's the whole point of exploration: to find something that no one else had seen before.