Saturday, May 10, 2008

The Vision for Space Exploration and the retirement of the Baby Boomers (part 2)


Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?
THE SPACE REVIEW
by Charles E. Miller and Jeff Foust

In part 1 of this article, we documented the projected significant impact to the federal budget of the retirement of the baby boomers, which will begin in the next few years. We suggested that this pending financial pressure is a major threat to the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), since the VSE has been designed with the assumption of flat budget increases that keep pace with inflation. We pointed out that the last time there was a national consensus to make balancing the budget a high priority—in the 1990s—NASA’s budget was cut 18.6% in real terms.

Our core assertion from Part 1 of this article is as follows:

Read more HERE.

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