H.R. 1105 - Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009: NASA Excerpts

The bill appears to be addressing the money that may never get spent based on the original appropriation to retire the space shuttle. They are changing the definition of the word expired to mean unexpired. In other words, they want to keep the expired money available to spend through 2015 for whatever reason including extending space shuttle operations to fill the gap. If it costs X amount to retire the space shuttle based on the entire original appropriated amount, then you might as well keep it flying with the money you have originally appropriated to retire it until the money runs out and then consider ending the program at that time.

Isn’t this how the politicians ended the Apollo Program? It just came to an earth-shattering halt that the aerospace industry took years to overcome. Aerospace enrollment in colleges and universities went to zero for several years back in the 70s because young people, interested in science and space, then, pursued careers other than aerospace.

This is called a last-minute snatch-and-grab of the money intended for one purpose, to be used for another purpose. Both purposes can be applied to the same goal, such as minimizing the transition gap between space shuttle retirement and Orion’s operational access to the space station.

There is going to be a space race, alright. A race of American-made spacecraft and rockets accessing the space station, either commercial or government. This is going to be exciting to witness.