[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Analyst_*]

It began with the cancelation of several ISS parts essential for conducting science: X38, US Living module, Centrifuge module. 2004 they canceled HST SM4 for "safety reasons" (LOL). The next Discovery mission selection has been delayed and there will be only one flight opportunity (Dawn and Kepler have been selected several yaers ago). New Frontiers 2 opportunity is in limbo and JIMO, the flagship with nuclear propulsion and 1000 kg+ science payload is dead.

And now, to save even more money (a tiny fraction of the monthly cost of the Iraq afterwar), is it considered to shut down Voyager 1 and 2 and several other "old" spacecraft.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/voyager1-05a.html

All this to finance a "vision" that is still hopelessly underfunded. This administration is the worst for space science since the 1980's, when the US didn't launched any interplanetray probe for more than 10 (in words: ten) years (Pioneer Venus 1978, Magellan 1989).

Sorry for being political, but the next step will be shutting down two fully functional Mars rovers.

Analyst

[djellison]

And what about Ulysses? Doesn't ESA have a say in the decision process? It's their probe! Or are they just talking about cutting the US involvement?

The US involvement including - as it does - DSN support so we can talk to the bloody thing

I'm not going to get anti-manned flight on everyone - and I do think there's value in the ISS if for nothing more than the very experience of working in space and working internationally - but there's a LOT that's wrong with it and a lot that should be done differently.

The proposals for the follow on are just a farce - so complex and un-un-necessary. So many diferent modules and launch vehicles - it's a joke.

Doug