NASA determining its own future

[Gravity_Ray]

Not sure if this is the correct forum to put this in but...

I wonder once Congress and the White House tell NASA what its budget is going to be, if NASA can turn around and tell Congress and the White House that they will cancel manned space flights and will contribute all that money to robotics and science missions?

I wonder what will happen if NASA takes over its own destiny?

 

[DarkenedOne]

A government agency cannot just say to Congress and the President that it is going to decide their own destiny.

That is the fastest way the director of NASA will get fired and replaced.

 

[vulture4]

Nevertheless it was once the case. From 1917 until 1958 at NACA, the predecessor of NASA, projects were proposed by engineers at the bottom of the chain, or by outside manufacturers that needed help with new technology. Effective research and development works fromt he bottom up, not the top down. Industry was the customer. NACA was a research center to serve the needs of industry, and it helped the US civil aerospace industry lead the world..

For NASA, industry is just a vendor to supply internal NASA needs. Today you cannot get R&D funded unless the primary customer is internal to NASA itself.

Read this book, if you want to know from whence we came: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4305/contents.htm