Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: NASA Funding
Message-ID: <1990Jan19.033827.4454@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <5A0110121F340076-MTABWIDENER*DXANDY@widener> <90018.112552AEA1@PSUVM.BITNET>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 03:38:27 GMT

In article <90018.112552AEA1@PSUVM.BITNET> AEA1@PSUVM.BITNET (Amy Antonucci) writes:
>As I understand it, NASA is under the gov't so that anything that NASA may
>get goes to Congress and then Congress decides how much to give back.

Yup.  Some years ago, when the Viking Fund had collected a substantial
amount of money as a show of public support for keeping Viking Lander 1
operational (there was talk of shutting it down), complications arose
when the time came to hand it over.  The government apparently can't
accept donations earmarked for specific projects or groups.  I believe
it was eventually worked out with the Fund contracting with JPL for
Viking data-analysis work, which was desirable in itself and also eased
pressure on the Viking budget a little.  (The political point had been
made anyway.)
-- 
1972: Saturn V #15 flight-ready|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1990: birds nesting in engines | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu