Leggendo l’articolo si capisce che l’unica notizia è che si stia seriamente considerando di tagliare il budget di Hubble e Chandra. Nessun dettaglio su quale impatto avrebbe questa decisione sull’attività scientifica. Ma IMHO resta una notizia deprimente, anche considerando l’esiguità delle cifre in gioco rispetto al bilancio federale.
The potential cuts, he said [he = Mark Clampin, director of NASA’s astrophysics division], are driven by the expectation that his division will not receive the full request of nearly $1.56 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2024 because of legislation passed in June that caps non-defense discretionary spending for 2024 at 2023 levels, with only a 1% increase for 2025. “We’re working with the expectation that FY24 budgets stay at the ’23 levels,” he said. “That means that we have decided to reduce the budget for missions in extended operations, and that is Chandra and Hubble.” Clampin declined to say how much the budgets of those two observatories would be cut, or specific impacts on them because of the cuts.