Via
Unstable Isotope's diary, I see that the Bush Administration is trying yet again
to cancel a mission to service the extraordinary Hubble Space Telescope:
Sources said that the White House, in consultation with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, had decided to eliminate the Hubble funding from the 2006 federal budget because the cost of servicing is expected to exceed $1 billion.
The sources said the administration made the decision despite its intention to ask Congress for a 4.6 percent budget increase for NASA to $17 billion. The request is expected to focus on plans to reorient NASA's priorities toward President Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration" to the moon and Mars. (Emphasis added.)
Stories like this often ignite debates about whether we should spend a billion dollars in outer space when we have so many problems here on Earth to deal with. But I think as the bolded final sentence makes clear, the choice is not between $1 bil for Hubble vs. $1 bil for schools or healthcare.
Rather, the choice is between $1 bil for Hubble vs. $1 bil for Bushco's insane, cockamamie Martian scheme - a scheme which some commentators believe is just a ruse for the Bushies to proceed apace with their desire to militarize space. I wouldn't be surprised if this view is right - I've yet to lose when betting on the Bush Administration's venality.
What I don't get is why Bush wants to have this fight yet again. When O'Keefe first announced the kill-Hubble plan, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) fought back hard and secured money for an outside study to evaluate proposals to extend Hubble's lifespan. This report, which recommended servicing Hubble one final time, was greeted with genuine bipartisan enthusiasm, a shocking thing in today's world.
Bush is once more going to have a fight on his hands, and this time, he'll face off against powerful members of his own party on this one, including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who is eyeing a gubernatorial bid - and whose state is home to NASA's Johnson Space Center. Houston's gonna have a whole different kind of problem, and I wouldn't be surprised if Bush winds up retreating on this one. And that'd be good news for space science - and for Hubble.