Good Bye Space !!!

Realized Today that..
The House Appropriations committee 2012 spending bill denies funding for a pair of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite programs, one to provide advance warning of solar storms, the other a collaborative project with Taiwan.

The House version of the 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies appropriations bill also would trim $50 million from NOAA’s $617.4 million request to develop a new generation of geostationary orbiting weather satellites, according to the report accompanying the bill published July 12. It appears the savings would be applied to help kick-start NOAA’s polar-orbiting weather satellite program, which was delayed by the protracted 2011 budget process.

The 2012 budget request NOAA sent to Congress in February asked for $47.3 million for the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and $11.3 million for Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2). The House bill would not provide funding for either.
Also loosing funding is the James Webb Space Telescope, the followon for the aging Hubble.
This could be considered "strike two" for the deeply troubled James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Last week, the House Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee made the recommendation that the advanced infrared space telescope -- and Hubble's replacement -- be cancelled. On Wednesday, the full House Science, Space and Technology Committee has approved the subcommittee's plan.

To see the difference between the Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, see this webpage
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5390932332/sizes/l/in/photostream/

We're scheduled to lose the Hubble in 2014 because it will fail by then.
That will leave the Chandra X-ray Observatory which will reach it's extended life around 2016, and the Spitzer Space Telescope, which ran out of liquid helium in 2009, but still operates two short wavelength modules that don't require coolant. It's expected to continue working as it orbits the Sun, even if it is well beyond it's expected lifetime.

So, after 2016 or so, if we're lucky, we'll be back to terrestrial observations of space, which can only see 'back' about 6 billion fuzzy years, vs the 12 - 13 billion years of the Hubble and it's now cancelled replacement. Fuzzy because they are limited to how long they can image a field by the spinning of the Earth. The Hubble could stay on a site for days at a time. On Earth you can only look at one place, if you're lucky, for 12 hours maximum.

Darn ! Heck !! And other words that cost me $1.00 in the swear jar.