When something like this gets 'held up', there's always something that holds up the tent. So went the description of the Shuttle during the 1970s and 1980s until they finally managed a launch. Of course, the folks at NASA are doing their darndest to get their bird in the air again, but alas, the cost keeps going up.
NASA estimated in February that it would spend $265 million in 2004 and $238 million in 2005 on safety improvements associated with returning its shuttle fleet to flight status next spring. NASA now estimates that it will spend $450 million on return to flight activities this year and $350 million to $650 million in 2005.It gets better. Check this out:
NASA Comptroller Steve Isakowitz said NASA's $3.9 billion shuttle budget can absorb the higher return to flight expenses this year, but 2005 could be a problem even if the agency gets its full $4.3 billion it has requested for the space shuttle program.
Isakowitz said the higher than expected return to flight costs make it "imperative" that Congress approve NASA's full $16.2 billion request for 2005. NASA's request represents a 5.6 percent increase over the agency's 2004 budget making it a tough sell on Capitol Hill during a year when most other federal agencies are being held to increases of 3 percent or less.
"It's not that we couldn't estimate the cost, we couldn't estimate the content," Kostelnik told reporters July 16. For example, he said, when NASA estimated its return to flight cost in February, it did not know that it would be pulling and refurbishing the rudder speed brakes on each orbiter. NASA has also since decided to make more changes to the shuttle's foam covered external tanks than previously believed necessary.El Duque keeps going
Like an aging rock star on a comeback tour, El Duque keeps putting a happy face onto the frown that is the Yankee pitching rotation. Once again, he worked his way through 5 innings to collect a win.
You gotta smile at that kind of thing. I could pitch a 56mph curve ball; I just don't have a 89mph fastball or any of the other array of pitches in his arsenal.In his second start since being elevated from Triple-A Columbus, El Duque went five innings, allowed three runs, six hits and threw 99 pitches. While his velocity increased a tick from his first outing a week ago, he got by with off-speed pitches and guts.
"I need to work on my control ・speed for me is not important," said El Duque, whose fastball reached 89 mph several times, while his breaking ball wouldn't have gotten pulled over on an interstate.
"That's the slowest curveball I have ever seen," said Gary Sheffield, who clubbed a two-run homer in the fifth that broke a 2-2 tie, delivered an RBI single in the seventh that stretched the lead to 5-3, and went 3-for-5.
- Art Neuro
No comments:
Post a Comment