(Eric Chomko) writes:

jeff findley ) wrote:
: History has shown that his comments to Webb were far more accurate, in
: terms of actual funding, than anything that was implied to the public,
: or any of the grand plans that came from NASA. The political reality
: is that government funding for manned space exploration will not
: return to the "glory days" of Apollo.

I thought the funding got cut in 1967 during LBJ's elected term? How could
JFK have affected that cutback having been dead for 3+ years?

The inertia of his "legacy" required that the goal be met. When it
became clear that the goal would be met (with some degree of
certainty), the budget got cut. This is in no way contrary to JFK's
views on space. Given what we know now, from JFK's own words, it
seems likely he would have cut the budget also.

Also, it shows the commitment of the scientists and engineers of the day
to actually go forth giving the cutback scenario at the time.

Not really. The hardware was largely developed and built when the
cuts came. The entire program was "over the hump" in terms of budget
anyway. What surprised NASA was the depth of the cuts to the Apollo
program (requiring planned missions be canceled) and the lack of
funding for a follow-on program of similar, or larger, size than
Apollo. Specifically, the AAP program was completely gutted, except
for Skylab and ASTP.

Jeff
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