Posted 2/01/2010 06:37:00 PM by Douglas

February 1^st is not a good day for NASA. It was seven years ago today that STS-107 didn't come home. But now, even with Bush's grand Vision for Space Exploration, NASA, and President Obama had decided, yeah, maybe not.

So this budget cancels the Constellation Program, including the Ares I and V rockets and the Orion crew exploration vehicle. NASA intends to work with the Congress to make this transition smooth and effective, working responsibly on behalf of the Taxpayers.

Oh, it's gonna be smooth, alright. Smooth right out the door. But in all actuality, it comes down to whether or not the United States wants a manned spaceflight program. Do people in districts not fat with NASA money care if there's a launch putting an American in space? Ida know. We'll see what falls out of this first proposal of the budget, but this effectively kills manned launches, gives the ISS to the Russians (or Chinese) or anybody else that can get to LEO. NASA has had Orion in development for four years, so it's ridiculous to think that a private venture would be ready to fly before Orion would. A few notes about the money:

• $20 Billion of a $3.8 Trillion dollar budget is 0.53%. A little more than half a penny of your tax dollar goes to NASA
• The Department of Defense got an $80 Billion increase this year.
• Over half (56.7%) of total Federal spending is welfare, social security, and medicare/cade

It's pretty clear that the focus of the government is bread, and not so many circuses anymore. Budget info here.