Finally something Trump did that I agree with - for real [View all]

[SpankMe]

To wit: proposing a significant increase in NASA's budget.

I've been in aerospace all my career. NASA has always struggled with $20bn +/- budgets for years - including during the shuttle era - and look at all they've done with it. Lots of research and space science. Think of the Mars missions, Jupiter, Pluto, solar probes, space telescopes - not to mention all of the stuff they're doing at installations all over the US - Stennis, Moffett, Langley, Goddard, JPL - the list goes on.

We can certainly argue the merits of moon vs. mars, how much private participation in US spaceflight there'l be, etc. But once new areas get funding, it's hard to pull them unless there's some gross issue.

The Pentagon has pissed away $20bn on single weapons systems that never came into use. NASA can do more with that kind of money.