NASA 2007 science budget

This is old news. The main purpose of this post is to provide historical references for something I'm going to write more about, and to give a general flavor of the controversy over NASA's science budget.

On February 6, 2006 the Bush administration delivered NASA's 2007 budget to Congress – and there were substantial cuts in the science programs. I wrote a little about that here, as part of a general discussion of a variety of NASA problems at the time. (See the section on "NASA's 2007 budget".)

You most likely don't want to plow through all these articles, so I'll just summarize. Some of the science missions that were cut back or eliminated from the budget included probes to Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa, and a telescope to search for Earth-like extrasolar planets (Terrestrial Planet Finder).

Two other missions, which I will write more about, involved advanced astrophysics: the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna to search for gravitational waves and Constellation-X to study black holes.

• NASA to divert cash from science into shuttle (2/7/06)
  
• Nasa spending to support shuttle (2/7/06)
  
• NASA makes hard cuts in research to preserve shoot for the moon (2/8/06)
  
• US space scientists rage over axed projects (2/16/06)
  
• Human spaceflight must come first, argues NASA (2/17/06)
  
• Budget Cuts Back Much-Promoted NASA Missions (3/2/06)
  
• Bush cuts carry consequences for science, experts say (3/2/06)
  
• Top US scientists fight for NASA science budget (3/3/06)
  
• NASA basic research loses funding (3/3/06)
  
• Bush's NASA cuts halts much research (4/4/06)
  
• Space agency's 2020 vision shortsighted, say Berkeley astronomers (4/6/06)
  
• NASA Chief Says Future Flights Will Force Cutbacks in Science (4/25/06)
  
• NASA chief defends budget cuts (4/26/06)
  
• NASA boss appeals to budget committee (4/27/06)
  
• Scientists To Voice Budget Concerns at NASA Advisory Council Meeting (5/1/06)
  
• Criticism of NASA science budget grows (5/4/06)
  
• Report says NASA lacks research money - also here, here (5/4/06)
  
• NASA's Reverse Thrust (6/1/06)
  

Tags: NASA