[Wildcatk23]

As this country withdraws from the space race, other countries are redoubling their efforts. If for no other reason than national security, we need to maintain our lead in space related technology. Think about how much damage China could do to this country by nudging a city block-sized asteroid so that its trajectory would land it on along one of our coasts. What would be the reasonable response to such a "natural disaster" that might kill millions and cripple our power grid?

It is really short sighted to see spending on space technology as a waste of money, IMO. If the technology does not already exist to turn a comet or asteroid into a man made disaster, it will in the not so distant future. Compared to what it would cost China or Russia to build a conventional military capability to threaten us, waging a surprise attack from space would be cheap.

I thought the budget was staying at 17.7 billion? The Cut was coming directly from the MARS exploration program?