Posted on 01/10/2014 11:23:53 AM PST by LonelyCon
NASA will complete a $350 million structure to test rocket engines at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi early this year. Then, it plans to mothball the 300- foot-high, steel-frame tower for the foreseeable future.
The reason: Congress ordered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to finish building the facility even though the agency doesn't need it.
The tower was designed to test a GenCorp Inc. engine for a rocket program canceled in 2010. Its funding survived thanks to Mississippi Republican senators led by Roger Wicker, who crafted a provision requiring the agency to complete the work.
The test stand is an example of how lawmakers thwart efforts to cut costs and eliminate government waste, even as they criticize agencies for failing to do so. Attempts to close military bases, mail-processing plants and other NASA facilities also have been fought by congressional members whose districts benefit from the operations.
"When it comes down to their pork, they're always going to defend it," said Rand Simberg, a space policy scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based research group that supports less spending and fewer regulations. "All that matters is maintaining jobs in the right states and districts."
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
It’s better than spending it on Welfare checks.
Shovel ready? To test an engine that won’t be used on a shuttle that we no longer have. Or the infrastructure to launch one if we did have one. How many trips to walmart could you make on that?
the welfare checks will go out either way,
Not only that, but, and Nanzi Pelousy must agree, it stimulates the economy.
Oh, but it’s money spent in Mississippi, I’m sure it just for us and none of the other 99 Senators or 435 Congressmen will be able to secure useless federal spending. I can’t wait to tell wicker how pleased I am. It’s an election year I’m surprised cochran isn’t taking credit too.
True but I’m all for the Space Program it was part of our greatness at one time.
They were buying planes and mothballing them when they were done too. Crazy
Well, this is $350 million taken away from the space program since it won’t be used.
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