$16.5 Billion NASA Budget Passed

With the tremendous budget pressures of the Iraq war and hurricane recovery efforts, I'm amazed that congress actually gave NASA the 1 billion increase requested. Their Exploration Architecture plan, developed to implement the President's "Vision for Space Exploration", is a reasonable and well-thought approach, but I feared it was dead in the water regardless of merit. We have formidable challenges ahead, but I'm glad we didn't sacrifice the future for the sake of our current problems. At just 0.7 percent of the federal budget, NASA is an afforable investment even in these times.