WP/AP: 3 critics of NASA budget cuts to science programs quit panel

[DeepModem Mom]

3 Critics of NASA Cuts Quit Panel
Associated Press
Friday, August 18, 2006; Page A08

CAPE CANAVERAL, Aug. 18 -- Three NASA advisers who spoke out against budget cuts to the space agency's science programs turned in their resignations this week, officials said Thursday.

Wesley T. Huntress Jr., Charles F. Kennel and Eugene H. Levy each served on the NASA Advisory Council's science committee. Kennel resigned by choice, but Huntress and Levy were asked to leave by NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin.

Levy, a professor of physics and astronomy who also is provost at Rice University in Houston, said their commitment to a broad science program at NASA "didn't comport with the kind of advice that the administrator and the chairman of the committee were looking for."

Levy said he understood the budget constraints on NASA but "we were certainly concerned that a strong commitment to science be maintained."...

***

NASA has come under fire in the past year for limiting growth in its science budget to 1.5 percent next year and 1 percent each year through the end of the decade. The limits should help the agency pay to finish the international space station and prepare to send astronauts back to the moon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701929.html

[acmejack]

1. Yeah, right moment of the day...

snip>
I don't want to give the impression that these guys were outspoken and that's why they were asked to leave, because that's not the case at all," Acosta said. "The administrator is looking for . . . members to advise him based on the priority that the agency has and based on what our parameters are."

NASA spokesman Dean Acosta.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Why do republicons hate science?

I suppose because it has to do with truth and stuff like that...

[go west young man]

3. Forced out because they had brains and balls is more like it.

NASA used to stand for something beyond politics but under this regime it's turning into another arm of the Gestapo. Budget cuts my ass. More like fear of science. If we put half the money into space exploration that we put into weapons and wars there would be no war because religion would be exposed for what it is. A load of ole bollocks.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. NASA sacrificied to neoclown high frontier bullshit

Oh well.

[hatrack]

5. So we can spend $10 billion more watching spiders fuck in zero gravity

Oh, and then there's the Mission To The Moon, followed by Mission to Mars, and the ever-popular Mission To Horseshit made so popular by the Bush Administration.

Who needs Earth observation and climate & weather satellite data when there's Galactic Political Bullshit to distribute?

:eyes: