Study: Shuttle, Station Spending Saps Science Funds

NASA is pouring money into keeping the space shuttle flying and completing the International Space Station, at the expense of smaller missions and basic research, the National Research Council reported yesterday. The NRC's Space Studies Board "was particularly concerned that small, lower-cost space missions would be hit particularly hard and that programs to analyze and study data the agency got back from its space missions would be reduced by 15 percent," the New York Times reports.