NASA Glenn Budget Crisis Coverage

Photo by Karen Schaefer

ideastream's Karen Schaefer has been following the budget crisis at NASA Glenn Research Center during the first half of 2005. Below are related stories you may find interesting.

• NASA Glenn Collaboration with Higher Education
  It's not just community coffers and contracting companies that will lose if projected funding cuts at NASA Glenn Research Center go through in next year's budget. Last year colleges and universities across Ohio received more than $17 million from NASA Glenn for research projects, faculty fellowships, and student internships. Nearly $10 million of that stayed right here in Northeast Ohio to train the next generation of research scientists and engineers. Both Glenn and local engineering schools say they need that partnership to continue. From Cleveland, ideastream's Karen Schaefer reports.
• Change is in the Wind for NASA Glenn Engine Research - Part 1
  Since 1941 the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland has been a leader in aircraft engine research. Glenn scientists and engineers have been responsible for developing the technology that has created the world's most powerful jet engines for use in commercial aircraft. More recently, NASA Glenn programs have been working to reduce pollution and boost fuel efficiency, so we can all breathe easier while conserving an increasingly-precious resource. But change is in the wind. Funding cuts for NASA aeronautics this year and next means some of Glenn's programs will be shut down and testing facilities mothballed. And some of this basic research - often years in the making - will never see the light of day. ideastream's Karen Schaefer recently visited the NASA Glenn Engine Research Building that's at the heart of this work with facilities manager John Leone and she brings us this audio tour.
• Change is in the Wind for NASA Glenn Engine Research - Part 2
  In Part 1, we began a tour of the NASA Glenn facility where some of the nation's leading-edge research on aircraft engines is done. With federal funding cuts, many of the programs that reduce pollution and improve engine efficiency will come to an end over the next few months. ideastream's Karen Schaefer takes us back now to the Engine Research Building, where tour guides Jeff Swan and John Leone are discussing some of the accomplishments Glenn's aeronautics research have brought to America's commercial aircraft industry.
• NASA Glenn Coverage: Research Budget Cut Will Affect NASA Glenn
  The President's proposed overall 2006 budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency will grow slightly in 2006 as NASA concentrates on its new missions of exploration and scientific discovery. But budgets for at least three of the agency's research centers - including the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland - will shrink, as ideastream's Karen Schaefer reports.
• NASA Glenn Coverage: NASA Glenn to Downsize
  Last week the National Aeronautic and Space Administration announced that under the President's 2006 budget the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland will see the largest downsizing in its history. 700 employees are slated to be cut from the workforce and nearly $120 million from its budget. Contractors, universities, even public schools will also take a big hit. Late last week, local leaders got together to organize ways to fight the cuts at NASA Glenn. ideastream's Karen Schaefer reports.
• NASA Glenn Coverage: Interview with Former Director John Klineberg
  NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is facing the likelihood of drastic cuts in budget and workforce over the next year and a half. The bulk of those cuts will be made in aeronautics programs, one of Glenn's traditional strengths. But it's not the first time NASA Glenn has been threatened with downsizing. In the mid-1990's the entire space agency's budget shrank dramatically and many aeronautics programs were sliced. John Klineberg was the director at Glenn a few years before, from 1987 to 1990. He also worked at NASA headquarters overseeing aeronautics and space technology, then later served as chief of Goddard Space Flight Center before retiring in 1995. Klineberg spoke with ideastream's Karen Schaefer about the latest threats to aeronautics research.
• NASA Glenn Coverage: 90.3 at 9 Call-in Show
  While the space exploration budget is up, funding for science, education and aeronautics programs - the first "A" in NASA - is down. And the impact of those cuts is already being felt on several of the agency's national research centers, among them NASA Glenn here in Cleveland. Listen to the 90.3 at 9 call-in show about the future of NASA Glenn.
• NASA Glenn Coverage: Dreams of Mars Whittle Reality of Economics
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is one of a handful of federal agencies targeted for a slight increase in the President's proposed 2006 budget. But dreams of Mars are whittling away at the first "A" in NASA. At research labs around the country, aeronautics budgets are slated to be slashed by a third over the next two years. But in states where the biggest cuts are planned, local Congressional delegations are fighting back. From member station WCPN in Cleveland, Karen Schaefer reports.
• NASA Glenn Coverage: Contractors in Jeopardy
  Under the President's proposed 2006 budget, the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland could lose up to 700 civil servants. But the potential job losses don't stop there. Contractors provide highly-skilled services ranging from making aerospace hardware to running giant wind tunnels that test the viability of new designs. One estimate puts more than 400 contractors on the chopping block, with a loss to tax revenues in the millions of dollars. And some fear the effect of brain drain on the region could be equally devastating. ideastream's Karen Schaefer reports.