Space Astronomy's Coming Lean Season

摘要

In a crowded hotel ballroom in Washington Jan. 10, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told the largest assemblage of astronomers in history that they should prepare to tighten their collective belts: "In short, we who run NASA today are doing our very best to preserve a robust science program in the face of, frankly, some daunting fiscal realities that affect all domestic discretionary spending. These realities dictate that we set priorities; NASA simply cannot accomplish everything that was on our plate when I took office last April. In space-based astronomy, and in other areas, we will have to make tough trade-offs between maintaining current missions, [...], and developing new capabilities."