The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended about $1 billion in cuts from the U.S. Space Force’s $30 billion request.

  • zhunk@beehaw.orgOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    11 months ago

    “Only” $29 billion for the Space Force.

    Whatever “special space activities” procurement means, it got about a half billion dollar cut.

    • antangil@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      11 months ago

      NASA doesn’t have nearly the infrastructure to obligate double its existing budget. It’d take 6 months just to figure out how to spend it, and a lot of it would go to anybody that said they could use it instead of to valuable projects. I would support doubling the NASA budget over say 3 years - that’d give the agency time to hire up and develop the pipeline of work.

      • zhunk@beehaw.orgOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        11 months ago

        There are some immediate smaller problems that could eat some quick money, like funding Mars Sample Return, uncancelling Janus, some one-off funding for an ISS deorbit tug and commercial stations, and probably untold amounts of facility maintenance.

        But yeah, an immediate doubling without warning doesn’t sound like a recipe for success.