GC019 Vision Problems

The White House just released its proposed 2007 budget for NASA, and it seems the administration has an interesting perspective on both science and its own "Vision for Space Exploration" (VSE). While the Bush administration isn't reducing anything it's asking NASA to do as part of VSE, the White House is increasingly reluctant to actually provide money for any of it. As a result, since the space shuttle continues to overrun every "official" estimate ever made of its future costs, NASA's space science program will now be drained of at least $2 billion over the next five years in an attempt to keep shuttles flying and the VSE moving forward. In this episode, I give you all the gory details, along with a bit of historical perspective.