jeff findley ) wrote:
: (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.

Are you convinced that had he lived we would NOT have gone to the moon?

: 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.

I asked this before in another post: What was the cost comparison of the
Apollo program versus the VietNam War?

Also consider the timing of both the war and the NASA cutbacks.

Eric

: Jeff
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