Well At Least Some In Congress Have Vision

U.S. Access to Space Station Is Preserved

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 11, 2005; Page A12

Congress amended the Iran Nonproliferation Act this week, allowing U.S. astronauts to continue to fly aboard Russian spacecraft and forestalling the possibility that the United States would lose access to the international space station.

The Senate, which drafted the original amendment, unanimously approved a modified version of the bill late Wednesday, after similar House action two weeks ago. The amendment will be sent to the White House, where President Bush is expected to sign it.

The House also easily passed NASA's $16.5 billion budget for 2006. Lawmakers largely followed the administration's wishes in sculpting a program that emphasized Bush's initiative to return humans to the moon by 2020 and eventually send them to Mars. The Senate was expected to easily pass the identical bill.

Congress did disagree with the administration by adding $60 million to an aeronautics budget that NASA wished to cut. The bill also earmarked more than $300 million for special projects sought by individual lawmakers.

"I wanted to not have any earmarks," said Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on science, State, Justice, Commerce and related agencies. "But you have to negotiate to get a bill." NASA's budget is part of the subcommittee's spending bill.

The need for an amendment to the Iran Nonproliferation Act became apparent after the 2003 Columbia disaster grounded the space shuttle, forcing U.S. astronauts to rely for prolonged periods on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get to and from the space station.

This is good news for America, we cannot afford to be the "village idiot" of the world. We need a good ambitious space program which will inspire our youth to pursue science and mathematics with enthusiasm. This is especially important with China moving "all in" in the Space Race. Of course personally, I would like to see us spending $100 billion on the space program, but that's just me. I remember the "golden years" of NASA and the glory days.

Full Story: NASA funding

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