The 2005 NASA budget just approved by Congress is a clear sign that lawmakers believe the agency has some important jobs to do. But no one should forget that despite the hefty increase, the demands on NASA far exceed the available funding. And given the wide latitude the House-Senate budget conference committee gave the agency to shift money from one program to another, some of the agency's big ticket items — the space shuttle and Hubble Space Telescope in particular — remain serious threats to siphon off the money from a lot of other programs. In a year in which other non-defense agencies saw little or no real budget increases, Congress approved a $16.2 billion budget for NASA, 5 percent above the $15.378 billion the agency received in 2004. The total amount is almost exactly what the agency requested, but it is a very deceptive top line.
展开▼
