Chinese moon mission changed climate at NASA

[pinto]

By Mike Allen and Greg Schneider in Washington
January 17, 2004

(via smh.com.au)

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Private companies in the US have been pushing NASA for years to undertake more far-reaching programs, such as sending astronauts to the moon or Mars. But the agency resisted due to declining budgets.

One industry official said the climate changed last October, when China put a man in orbit and announced plans to go to the moon.
Marco Caceras, a senior space analyst for aerospace research firm the Teal Group, said that the exploration initiative seemed "hollow" at best.

"It's not a serious proposal," he said, noting that the Administration plans to pump only $US200 million a year extra into NASA over five years, or less than half the amount that is spent each time the space shuttle is a launched. "Bush wants to be seen as the guy who came up with the idea, and let someone else worry about it."

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Meanwhile, US aerospace and energy industries, including Lockheed Martin, Halliburton and Boeing, stand to reap billions of dollars from the contracts and spin-off technologies that would result from the new plans.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/16/1073878033235.html