Sep 4 2001
From The Space Library
The National Academy of Sciences released a report criticizing a White House proposal directing NASA to assume responsibility for research in astronomy and astrophysics managed by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The White House had made the proposal as a cost-reduction measure in its proposed budget for FY 2002. At the request of NASA and the NSF, a National Research Council (NRC) panel had assessed the proposal and concluded that NASA should not assume this responsibility. According to the panel, the NSF’s relations with the academic community and its commitments to investigator-initiated and interdisciplinary research made the NSF better suited than NASA to sponsor ground-based astronomy and astrophysics research. The panel also concluded that the federal government could maximize the benefits of astronomy and astrophysics research by creating an interagency astronomy and astrophysics planning board to develop an integrated research strategy. The NRC panel’s report suggested that such a strategy should include ways of supporting ground- and space-based facilities and missions, and that NASA and the NSF should create formal mechanisms to implement the planning board’s recommendations. (NRC, U.S. Astronomy and Astrophysics: Managing an Integrated Program (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001); James Glanz, “Report Warns Against Plan for Changes in Astronomy,” New York Times, 5 September 2001.)
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