and now for some bad news

Space agency's 2020 vision shortsighted, say campus astronomers
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkele...05_space.shtml
...At least two NASA projects with which Berkeley scientists are involved have been less fortunate. NuSTAR, a space-based X-ray telescope proposed by the California Institute of Technology and approved by NASA — and to which the campus's contribution was to be relatively small — has been canceled. Berkeley astronomer Geoffrey Marcy, however, has played a significant role as an investigator for the Terrestrial Planet Finder, a project designed to search for habitable, Earth-like planets in distant solar systems. The Caltech-led TPF was scheduled for launch between 2012 and 2015, but has now been "deferred indefinitely" by NASA.

Lin, the principal investigator for RHESSI, says the Explorer program has produced "unequaled science per dollar." He's particularly concerned about the agency's scaling back of its competitions for project proposals. The last opportunity for universities to submit proposals came in 2002, and the next one now appears unlikely until 2008.

"The scary effect is, what about in the future?" Lin says. "We're very successful at this. And not having the opportunity to compete in the future, for at least several more years, will be a serious blow to us."






NASA chief seeks truce in budget battle
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12213567/
Space science and exploration should go hand-in-hand, Griffin says