White House seeks deep NASA cuts as Artemis II breaks spaceflight record

First, the good news: the Artemis II crew has successfully swung around the far side of the Moon and surpassed Apollo 13's record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth. Now the bad news: the White House is sharpening the budget blade once again. The US administration celebrated Artemis II's success while …

[werdsmith]

They want to pull the money from the “low key” science and put it towards the moon missions because that’s where the glory is.

No surprise, given the plans for the presidential library in hurricanesville.

[Like a badger]

This is democracy in action. 49.1m US voters voted for an anti-science party led by a criminal, liar, and sex pest, and 85.9m didn't care either way. Both groups have now got what they wanted, which is the defunding of science, of health care, the systematic dismantling of the USA's reputation and status, the looting of the state by a small bunch of criminals, and a war that's now left those same 135m berks railing at the unfairness and horror of $4 a gallon for petrol.

Vote for stupid things*, get stupid things.

* Or abstain on the matter.

[AVR]

Cut that science (science is woke!), the boring space station and the namby-pamby safety and security stuff, but add a small boost to having photo ops on the Moon. I can see the logic, though I have to oppose it.

[Baird34]

They do see science as woke, as statistically scientists (and other book lurnin' types) tend to be liberal. They hate those fancy book lurnin' types.

[ravenviz]

Bill Hicks: What are you reading for?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

The irony being that scientists aren't that keen on the ISS either. Its 'science' is solely the study of how to be on the ISS and its original intention was to fund BoeingLockheedGrumman (and their Soviet counterparts) through the end of the cold war

[alain williams]

Get Trump to declare war against the clangers

But the first step is to find them so NASA will need a lot of budget to build a moon base from which we can search for them.

Those from the wrong side of the pond can demystify thmselves.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Get Trump to declare war against the clangers

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE-ZM9oXkAAz3Cq.jpg

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Get Trump to declare war against the clangers

The Clangers are safe, they have a tactical Soup Dragon that can be deployed against any attackers

[Outski]

Re: Get Trump to declare war against the clangers

And Mother Clanger has come home

[LazLong]

$1.5 trln for the military

Trump is willing to fund the Defense Department to the tune of $1.5 trillion, but we can't spare $25 billion for NASA. Frak him.

[A Non e-mouse]

Re: $1.5 trln for the military

A better use of that money would be on universal health care and increased spending on education. But the last thing Dump and his ilk want is a healthy, educated populace.

[werdsmith]

Re: $1.5 trln for the military

In fact a boost to STEM education was part of the US strategy during the the 1960s and the Apollo effort.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: $1.5 trln for the military

So that's why they did it from Alabama, Houston and Florida

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: $1.5 trln for the military

>A better use of that money would be on universal health care and increased spending on education.

But the military get universal health care and education and free housing and free food, it's the American dream.

<sings>Then raise the scarlet baseball cap high. Within its shade we'll live and die,

[elsergiovolador]

Belyy dom

Putin likely is suffering from popped vein over this and asked his poodle Krasnov to pull the rug.

[A Non e-mouse]

The problem with the American space program is that it can only really plan one year at a time and it's at the whim of politicians. The end result is an over-budget vanity exercise with no real end goal (Other than being a feeding trough for politicans)

[ThatOne]

Actually it's only a couple months at a time since the situation changes constantly, and most decisions (good or bad) aren't guaranteed to last long enough to be applied...

There is a base tune of "we don't want to pay for that useless 'science' shit", modulated by whatever laws still subsist, and sudden inspirations like "hey, why don't we do this cool thing so we can bask in the glory", themselves moderated by the desire to have somebody else pay for them (and by any passing butterflies).

Managing a lab's budget wasn't much fun before, but it has become a waking nightmare nowadays.

[Oneman2Many]

They have a multiyear plan, they apply for funding year by year and that may force a change in plans but doesn't stop you planning multi-year.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Distance Record

"farthest distance traveled by humans in space. "

Surely all those humans who claim they were abducted by aliens and taken to their home planets to be subjected to heinous experiments before they were returned to Earth would hold that record?

Through you'd probably not find that on the Guinness Book of World Records.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Distance Record

And it isn't. It's the furthest away, but the Russians that spent 18months on MIR went a lot further - admittedly they were doing the space equivalent of laps of the parking lot, but they did a lot of miles.

[RobThBay]

Re: Distance Record

the farthest distance traveled by humans in space....?? Really?

I think they meant furthest away from Earth.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Distance Record

How far away is Trafalmadore?

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Gotta pay for the Israel-ordered mass murder of Iranians somehow....

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not entirely fair.

We can use the distraction to kill a bunch of Lebanese and Palestinians as well

[kmorwath]

Apollo 13 unwanted record....

.... obtained just because it needed to enter a free-return trajectory instead of a lunar orbit insertion - something Artemis didn't even try.

Today even NASA tries to sell you something.

[that_dude, dude]

From March 22, 2020 - 60 Minutes interview with Neel Kashkari of the Federal Reserve:

⸻

Scott Pelley: “When you say ‘flood the system with money,’ how much money?”

Neel Kashkari: “There is an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve.”

Scott Pelley: “Does that mean you can keep this going forever?”

Neel Kashkari: “There is no end to our ability to do that.”

⸻

Scott Pelley: “Where does that money come from?”

Neel Kashkari: “We create it electronically.”

Scott Pelley: “Out of thin air?”

Neel Kashkari: “That’s literally what Congress has told us to do. That’s the authority they have given us, to print money and provide liquidity into the financial system.”

⸻

Neel Kashkari: “Your ATM is safe. Your banks are safe. There’s enough cash in the financial system, and there’s an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve.”

Neel Kashkari (continued): “We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there’s enough cash in the banking system.”

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Well he's not wrong. There is an infinite amount of money available - all backed by our eternal and unwavering full faith in the US government

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Most buyers for those funds are foreign countries which are pissed off at how Trump's version of the US has treated them, and some have started dumping their investment as a tit-for-tat response to tarrifs.

Now you're trying to finance an illegal "war", mass murder warcrimes against civilians, and literally threatening to wipe out an entity country - a clear cut case of genocide.

Don't be surprised if no one wants to buy your federal "investments" any more, butchers.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

>Most buyers for those funds are foreign countries

50% of American debt is owned by US citizens, 25% by the US government and just under 25% by foreign investors.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

You can count on the sane US population to run screaming from bonds for the foreseeable future; Trump supporters other than the ones he personally is willing to associate with tend to be far too poor to invest in bugger all, and the rest of the population isn't in support of his little murder spree.

[Like a badger]

An easy fix for Flump: Require pensions funds to in "low risk" assets. By conventional wisdom that puts domestic government bonds at the top of the shopping list.

A trick already tried and tested by the c*nts of the British government.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Buy US Treasuries

So that we can afford to invade your country

Many Thanks

Uncle Sam[Trump]

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Buy US Treasuries

Would be the first to persuade your enemy to buy war bonds - but it's worth a try

[VoiceOfTruth]

Is space exploration really necessary?

It says it all in the bible. The earth was created on days 1 to 3, and the sun moon and stars thereafter.

This is the message of the religious 'right', which is a misnomer in several ways in just two words.

But don't worry. The arms companies will be sitting pretty.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Is space exploration really necessary?

But it doesn't say anything about any other planets.

That's why we've abandoned plans for Mars, it isn't in the book and so doesn't exist

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Is space exploration really necessary?

"That's why we've abandoned plans for Mars"

Unless NASA were to say there's some likelihood of significant amounts of gold and rare earths on Mars...

Trump will want a slice of the action

[IGotOut]

Well....

....those War Crimes aren't cheap. The money has to come from somewhere.

[that one in the corner]

But DJT Heinlein audiobooks

In particular, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".

Put the bit about lobbing rocks from Moon to Earth, with precision, onto a loop[1]. Two days later, NASA will have full DoD funding for a moonbase. Plus a few targeting telescopes[2].

[1] but bleep out the actual targets used in the book, of course

[2] "They are cunning devils, Sir, and have hidden their launch sites from everything but far infrared and gamma, Sir. No, no, it only *looks* like the telescopes are pointing the wrong way, we have to measure the cosmic sources to eliminate their fingerprints, you know, like that CSI show, Sir."

[Anonymous Coward]

Artemis obviously got too close to the firmament

Woke God up on his day off.

[MatthiasU]

Artemis and the budget

it might be noted that Artemis is a galaxy-class black hole as far as NASA money is concerned.