NatureNews: NASA, wriggling free of shuttle costs, is slashing astrophysics too
We’ve posted here on rumblings that the Hubble Telescopes designated successor, the James Webb on which billions already have been spent, may get the ax as the federal government runs short on money. The project is late, the telescope is smaller than originally planned even if it remains rather large, and the bills keep going up and up.
At NatureNews Eric Hand takes a glance at the final week of operation for the space shuttle system, then dissects the depth of money woes at NASA and the directorate centered in the crosshairs: atrophysics, which at NASA mainly means telescopes at shining things for outside our solar system.
Other subagencies within NASA that are doing better do newsworthy things too – such as solar system research and space monitoring of Earth’s environment. But surely no single mission, not even Mars Rovers or Cassini at Saturn, have generated as much news as the Hubble has. Intense media coverage of it has helped to make NASA, as revealed in an opinion poll of myself, the most admired US agency in the world. Maybe it is the only US agency with an overwhelmingly impressed fan club outside the US.
- Charlie Petit
July 21st, 2011 at 10:39 am
No surprise there. Who’s next? Mars missions.
January 6th, 2012 at 8:19 pm
“Other subagencies within NASA that are doing better do newsworthy things too – such as solar system research and space monitoring of Earth’s environment. But surely no single mission, not even Mars Rovers or Cassini at Saturn, have generated as much news as the Hubble has. Intense media coverage of it has helped to make NASA, as revealed in an opinion poll of myself, the most admired US agency in the world. Maybe it is the only US agency with an overwhelmingly impressed fan club outside the US.” That’s kinda interesting actually.