Scientific American decries the gutting of NASA science

Scientific American's blog has a nice(ish) blog article about how NASA's budget woes are disemboweling the science program. Slightly old, but worth a read. One thing I'd grumble about is their example of how (non-solar system) astronomy is being hurt: TPF (terrestrial Planet Finder) being put on hold. TPF was not the highest priority mission to be mothballed, Constellation-X was, and in fact the whole Beyond Einstein initiative is in real danger. I'll post a rant about the shoddy TPF goings-on, and why I think TPF frankly isn't as much of a "most do" as Constellation-X, at some point in the future.

For some background to the cuts see the House Science Committee Democrats letter of 2006 May 11. The sad thing is only small amounts of money are required to prevent/roll back these cuts, small compared to the $250 million per week a certain unnecessary war is costing. Congress is penny-wise and pound foolish.