NASA Suspends STEM programs!

[nobrakes8]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

I wonder how they're planning to handle existing contractual obligations, especially if they involve sunk costs or penalties for non-performance. After all, for some activities, the fiscal costs, social costs, or both might actually be higher in case of cancellation. (If they're on top of things, those would have been identified already, and waivers decided upon before the issuance of the memorandum.)

Also, does "mission critical" have a special meaning in NASA jargon? And what's the scope? If an organizational unit's mission is to perform STEM outreach, is all STEM outreach "mission critical"?

So far those contractual obligations have been playing a role on which programs and get cancelled in 2013. My *hope* is that NASA already had booked the financial support for FIRST for the remainder of 2013. Also, mission critical likely means the bare minimum to keep programs like the ISS and Curiosity running safely.

I think 2014 is going to be a tough year for FIRST and many teams --we'll just need to band together as a community and get through it. I won't be surprised to see the major prime contractors scale back support considerably (Lockheed, UTC, BAE & Boeing all have difficult decisions to make including laying off employees).