Sending our money into space.

With our country in a financially strapped time, we are all looking at cutting from our budgets. What about our government? What are they doing to cut unnecessary expenses?

Q. How much does it cost to launch a Space Shuttle?
A. The average cost to launch a Space Shuttle is about $450 million per mission.
-www.nasa.com

So how many launches are there? Already for 2009 NASA has planned 4 launches. That's so far, more can be scheduled at any time. Their running total so far is $1.8 billion. Looking at the scheduled missions below, which ones do you see that can't wait at least one year??

1-The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) is a new Earth orbiting mission sponsored by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program. The ESSP Program funds competitively selected, low to moderate cost Earth Science missions. These highly focused missions acquire exploratory measurements of the atmosphere, the oceans, the land surface and the solid Earth. These missions share a common goal of improving the capability of Earth scientists to predict changes in weather, climate and natural hazards.

2-The Solar Dynamics Obdervatory (SDO) is designed to help us understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.

3-NOAA-N is the latest polar-orbiting satellite developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA-N will collect information about Earth's atmosphere and environment to improve weather prediction and climate research across the globe.

4-The flight of space shuttle Endeavour includes several significant steps to install new crew equipment inside the International Space Station and service the solar array joints of the laboratory. During STS-126, the crew of space shuttle Endeavour and the space station will:

-- Exchange crew members. Sandra Magnus will swap places with current station resident Greg Chamitoff.

-- Conduct four spacewalks. Working in teams of two, astronauts will emerge from the space station’s Quest airlock and work on the two large joints that turn the station’s massive solar array “wings.” They are to service the starboard side joint and perform preventative maintenance on the port side joint.

-- Install new crew quarters, a galley, waste water recycling system and oxygen generator inside the space station. The equipment has been packed inside refrigerator-sized racks that require forklifts to lift them on Earth. But in space, a single astronaut can move a rack around with little problem.

Endeavour and its crew are to land at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after 15 days in space.