Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on May 12, 2005 20:38:56 GMT -6
Prometheus, ISS Research Cuts Help Pay for Shuttle and Hubble Repair Bills
WASHINGTON -- NASA sent Congress a revised spending plan for 2005 that would significantly cut the Project Prometheus nuclear power and propulsion program, cancel a host of international space station-based biological and physical research activities, and postpone some space science missions, including two advanced space telescopes and a Mars science lander slated to launch in 2009.
The cuts were necessary, according to NASA, to pay the remaining $287 million tab for preparing the space shuttle for its return to flight, to make a substantial down payment on a potential Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, to accommodate $400 million worth of special projects that lawmakers added to NASA’s budget last year, and to cover larger than predicted bills for a variety satellite projects being prepared for launch.
NASA informed Congress of these intended changes in an updated 2005 Operating Plan sent to Congress May 11. A copy of the operating plan, obtained by Space News, details changes both big and small that NASA says it needs to make to its $16.2 billion budget 2005 to get through the end of the fiscal year.
NASA’s latest operating plan includes the full $291 million Congress directed it to spend this year preparing for a possible Hubble servicing mission. NASA’s last spending plan, sent to Congress in December for review, allocated only $175 million of that amount to a Hubble mission. In February, NASA announced, to the chagrin of Hubble-supporters in Congress, that it would abandon any effort to save Hubble.
Full story here at Space.com: www.space.com/news/050512_nasa_prometheus.html
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Can't have it all, glad the Hubble repair is on the table, but sorry to see these projects cut.
I remember reading about the prometheus project way back in the '70's, using atomic bombs to propel the craft to the stars.