Astrobiology?I Think I've Found My Calling

NASA Resumes Hunt for Space Monsters

from Sploid

NASA has backed down from its plan to completely kills the space agency's search for extraterrestrial life.

$30 million of the previously budgeted $160 million will now be funded for astrobiology projects over the next three years, New Scientist reported today.

But scientists chasing the elusive space monsters say they'll still put pressure on NASA to restore all the money.

While the pointless slaughter in Iraq has already cost Americans nearly $300 billion dollars, accident-prone NASA makes do with about $13 billion each year.

Critics say most of that money is thrown away on pork-barrel projects while private companies are on the verge of stealing human exploration of space away from the government.

The latest budget-cutting moves at NASA were attempts to make do with less money. Washington had cut some $3 billion of NASA's annual budget.

Scientists were furious, saying that NASA was trying to start an ill-fated Moon/Mars manned program that the White House requested but didn't fund. Besides, finding E.T. is going to have a major impact on sending humans on space missions.

"I think most people see astrobiology as being front and centre to the Vision for Space Exploration," said Carl Pilcher, NASA's senior scientist for astrobiology.