NASA's New Budget

[Ian Curtis]

The President's recently released budget could set NASA on a different course than it is currently on. [LINK]

The major points include six billion (new) dollars for human spaceflight over five years, the cancellation of Project Constellation, an emphasis on Commercial Spaceflight, extending the lifetime of the ISS, funding for new robotic missions, funding for global climate research, and funding for technology prizes (X Prize, anyone?), and various aeronautical research too.

However, looking down at the numbers, while NASA will receive an increase of 14 million dollars for education in 2010, this will be followed by a projected decrease of 37 million dollars in 2011.

Obviously this still needs to make its way through Congress, and I imagine there will certainly be heated debate. Anyone have an idea what sort of impact that might have on NASA's funding of FIRST teams if it's passed as is?

On a further note, does anyone know how many people are employed by the Constellation program? Per the Commercial Spaceflight Federation 5,000 jobs will be created by this budget. How many will be lost by Lockheed-Martin, ATK Launch Systems, and other contractors for the Constellation Program?