--- diveboss@xmission.com wrote:

You know Kurt, I looked, but didn't see anythings crediting President Bush with cancelling the X-33 program. . . . Quote: "The decision to terminate both X-33 and X-34 were made internally by NASA and were not a White House decision, Stephenson said."

Guy, the timeline I remember was - May 2000 - Bush made a campaign pledge to increase funding to research, develop and deploy a missile defense (Star Wars) system. June 2000 - The X-33 composite tanks manufactured by Alliant here in Utah develop cracks. October 2000 - Bush released NASA campaign position paper, proposing cut-backs at NASA due to alleged mismanagement, including in the X-33 program. March 1, 2001 - After being elected, Bush released his first budget including a large tax cut. To fund the tax cut, Bush proposed to hold NASA to a 2 percent funding increase and to omitt funding for the X-33. His first budget proposed increasing NASA funding by $200 million to $14.5 billion. In contrast, the March 2001 budget proposed increasing spending on nuclear missile defense (Star Wars) to $2.6 billion. March 21, 2001 - Facing a budget crunch, NASA and Lockheed jointly announce the decision to abandon the X-33 and X-34, the shuttle's successors. Feb. 2003 - Damage to Columbia's ceramic tiles results in failure on re-entry. Columbia was the first shuttle to fly 1981. Although it has had two major maintenance refurbishments and the failure was not necessarily related to age, Columbia was 22 years old in 2003. In the 2005 budget, the DoD baseline budget request to support the ongoing missile defense research program had grown to $7.4 billion. With increases, the DOD was asking for $9.1 billion - again, just for ballistic missile defense. That's a $0 to $9.1 billion increase from 2000-2005. Between 2000-2005, NASA's budget went from 13.4 billion to 15.7 billion, which works out to a 2.8 percent inflation increase. Some budgetary choices were and are being made. As a result, there is no replacement space plane. Federal agencies can only adapt to what they are authorized to spend. In the face of the prevailing budgetary wind of 2001 and the impending Congressional budget battle over the 1st Bush tax cut, that NASA would try to not antagonize the big boss by saying cancelling the X-33 "was an internal decision," could only be expected. Although the Moon's up, it's a 102 degrees with clear skies. I'm heading for any higher, darker and cooler altitude. - Clear Skies, Best Wishes. Canopus56(Kurt) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com