NASA鈥檚 dealings with Congress are no stranger to upset, and this week things got positively stormy.
One dispute was provoked by a NASA report , which Congress has demanded. 鈥淲e will not commit to a date that has a low probability of being achieved,鈥� NASA wrote.
On 12 January, members of the Senate committee that oversees NASA retorted that the date is 鈥渘ot optional鈥�. 鈥淣ASA must use its decades of space know-how and billions of dollars in previous investments to come up with a concept that works,鈥� the senators wrote.
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Meanwhile, NASA鈥檚 inspector general has that the agency is forced to fund projects the Obama administration plans to cancel. These include the expensive Ares 5 rocket programme, which began under President George W. Bush.
Congress forbade NASA from shutting down such projects in the wording it included in the agency鈥檚 2010 budget. The waste could amount to $500 million by the end of 2011.
