Broadcast 2481 (Special Edition)

Guests: John Batchelor, Marcia Smith, Dr. David Livingston. Topics: NASA 2016 Budget, SLS, Commercial Crew & more. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We do not permit the commercial use of any Space Show program or part thereof, nor do we permit Space Show programs to be edited, placed on YouTube, or other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted in news articles, papers, academic & research work but must be cited or referenced in the proper citation format. Contact Dr. Livingston for questions about our copyright and trademark policies which we do enforce. This program is archived on The Space Show website, podcasting, and blog sites with permission from John Batchelor. Please visit the John Batchelor Show website for more information about this fine program, www.johnbatchelorshow.com. Remember, your Amazon Purchases Can Help Support The Space Show/OGLF (www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm). For those of you listening to archives on live365.com & rating the programs, please email me the reasons for your rating. This will definitely help improve Space Show programming. Thank you. Please note that audio and transition issues are a result of copying the John Batchelor broadcast & are not within my control as they originate in the Batchelor studio. John Batchelor and I welcomed back Marcia Smith of spacepolicyonline.com to discuss the NASA 2016 budget per the recent decisions made by the House Appropriations Committee. We discussed SLS, Planetary Science, Orion, Commercial Crew, cuts to Earth Sciences plus the criticism against these allocations by both The White House and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. We also talked about Mr. Bolden's comments saying that if commercial crew were not fully funded, it would seriously delay the program. While the committee allocated a larger amount to the commercial crew program than before, it did fall short of what both The White House and NASA said the program needed. We also talked spending caps and sequestration. Marcia explained how that would work as overall the total spending for the agencies involved have to stay within the caps but the allocations within the agencies can differ which is why there are winners and losers. John questioned Marcia on SLS as he was not that supportive of it. Note what Marcia had to say about SLS but whatever one thinks about it, the program clearly has the support of many in Congress. You can email Mr. Batchelor or Marcia Smith through me or her website.