Final Shuttle Flight - Atlantis

Space Shuttle Atlantis' final voyage - STS-135

On the July 8, 2011 the final space shuttle mission took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  It is the end of an era.  Never again will the world watch as a shuttle launches into space.  It really is sad.

You know what is even more sad?  The federal government spent $20.2 Billion on air conditioning for our two war efforts every year.  That is more than NASA's entire annual budget (approx $19 Billion).  The shuttle program is dead with no replacement imminent.  So very, very sad.  Yes, the US government spends more on air conditioning in desert wars than on NASA.  I have discussed NASA's budget relative to the rest of the federal government in a previous post: The Federal Budget, NASA and Science Funding. 

There has also been some chatter on the 'net and news agencies of the issue of some space junk hitting the space station.  As it turns out, the space junk will pose no threat to the ISS or the docked spacecraft.   From the space.com article:

"Mission Control has verified that the track of a piece of orbital debris will not be a threat to the International Space Station and space shuttle Atlantis," agency officials said in a statement. "No adjustments to the docked spacecraft’s orbit will be necessary to avoid the debris."

So, there it is.  ISS is safe.  Atlantis is docked and safe.  Last shuttle flight, ever.

But, don't despair too much.  I don't think manned space exploration will end.  I hope it won't anyway.

The Federal Budget, NASA and Science Funding

Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-51

NASA has been spared major cuts in the federal budget for 2011.

This means NASA can continue to develop a heavy lift rocket, which they desperately need, since after the shuttle program is retired there will be no native US technology for getting people or cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

In the 2011 federal budget, NASA was given a budget of $18.5 billion.  Seems like a lot, right?  Well let us really break it down compared to the total US budget and some other federal agencies.

Total Budget: $3.69 trillion or $3,690 billion

NASA:               $18.5 billion (0.5% of total budget)
Defense              $738 billion (20% of total budget)
Social Security    $738 billion (20% of total budget)
Health Services   $381 billion (10.3% of total budget)

So, in comparison, NASA's budget is only one half of a percent of the federal budget.  Not even a drop in the bucket.

Overall, the 2011 budget was very kind to science.  The National Institute of Health saw a budget increase of about 3%.  The National Science Foundation saw an 8% increase.  The Department of Energy science programs saw a 4.5% increase.  Note, all these increases are relative to 2010.

I was very pleasantly surprised.

Links for data on the budget:
I took numbers from this NY Times graph. And the Washington Post also has a nice graphic.
Note: There are differences between how NYT and WP define different spending programs.  It is hard to reconcile the two.