12.07.2004
The (High Cost of the) Vision Thing
While blog may earn the spot as the number one word of 2004 (at least according to Merriam-Webster Inc., who, perhaps, should know), this week (although granted, it's only Tuesday), the word mandate zooms around the spaceblogosphere eating up a fair share of bandwidth -- and not over Pres. Bush's election success, but rather, of course, NASA's huge budgetary coup. (In this regard, the Probe would especially like to thank House Majority Leader Tom DeLay [R-Tex] for his efforts in ensuring we enjoy an exciting launch week here on Space Law Probe.) We'll have to wait and see about the mandate thing. Clearly, at a time when funding which has nothing to do with war or security remains harder to come by than a cup of hot tea on Mars, a six percent increase for NASA, yes, that's $16.2 billion discretionary budget authority for 2005, is spectacular, especially for residents of the Johnson Space Center vicinity and Rep. DeLay's freshly redrawn district. For NASA there will come time to make some thorny choices concerning the Hubble Space Telescope, Shuttle program and ISS, among other items. And we all have our opinions about all that. Meanwhile, as Rep. DeLay proclaims, "May God Bless Texas and the 22nd district."
