Academic

RAND SIMBERG: Will Congress Hand the Keys to Space to Russia? ?Thursday, the House Science Committ?

By Glenn Reynolds

RAND SIMBERG: Will Congress Hand the Keys to Space to Russia? “Thursday, the House Science Committee is due to mark up a bill that would slash the $6 billion Barack Obama had planned for the commercial crew initiative (investing in companies to develop a space taxi service for taking astronauts into orbit) by about 96 percent, to $250 million. At the same time, the committee seems determined to resurrect the flawed Ares/Orion program. If this plan were to become law, it could leave the U.S. reliant on Russian rockets to get to the space station indefinitely. . . . If this bill becomes law, the Russians will be getting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the coming years for a service that could have been provided by private American companies.”

Obama’s NASA-restructuring plan is a good one, and if Congress screws it up it will be very bad for the country. But what do they care about the country, as long as there’s pork. . . . ?

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on July 22, 2010 (boomark / email).