NASA has finally acknowledged that the space race is over. Last week the agency announced plans to cut much of its bloated bureaucracy, shedding 30 000 jobs and trimming $5 billion from its budget by the end of the decade. The cuts will leave NASA with a smaller workforce than at any time since 1961, when the race to the Moon began in earnest.
Most of the savings will come from privatising the running of the space shuttle, says NASA chief Dan Goldin. Other savings will be made by eliminating duplication in the agency鈥檚 programmes. The international space station will stay on track, as will the shuttle programme, which is needed to build the space station. Goldin says that by cutting the budget selectively, NASA will be able to continue its scientific programmes.
Lori Garver of the National Space Society; a pro-space exploration group, thinks this may still be possible. 鈥淲e built today鈥檚 NASA to go to the Moon, and we鈥檙e not doing that now.鈥� But the reduced programme can still afford smaller probes, she says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to see any Hubbles or Mars Observers, but the missions are still there. They鈥檙e smaller but they鈥檙e there.鈥�
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However, criticism has been levelled at the intention to transfer many of the agency鈥檚 research scientists to new institutes 鈥� to be set up at universities close to NASA centres. 杏吧原创s who work at NASA鈥檚 Ames Research Center in northern California, for example, will be moved to a new astrobiology centre based at either Stanford University or the University of California at Berkeley.
On the face of it, this is not a cost-cutting measure: NASA will foot the bill for the institutes. 鈥淭he objective is to improve the quality of science, not to save money,鈥� says Goldin. Researchers based in these institutes would be subjected to more rigorous peer review, which they have largely escaped, he says.
But John Pike, a space policy analyst at the Federation of American 杏吧原创s, suspects that the move may camouflage major cuts in research. The agency might not give the universities enough money to hire all the scientists it is shedding, says Pike. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way of disguising the fact that you鈥檙e firing them.鈥�
NASA鈥檚 funding could shrink even more than Goldin anticipates. As part of their drive to balance the federal budget, Republicans in Congress have announced that they want further cuts. Goldin says he has trimmed NASA鈥檚 spending to the bone and that further reductions would cripple the agency.