Space vehicles eat science

The American Association for the Advancement of Science released its preliminary analysis of the research and development funding in President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2007.

Their conclusion: NASA's planned spending on its new exploration vehicles is hurting the agency's status as a major sponsor of physical sciences research.

The AAAS is a respected, non-partisan organization that keeps a comprehensive tally of federal R&D funding. Their spreadsheets and observations are often quite helpful in cutting through some of the bureaucratic clutter that shadows the federal budget process.

"The overall federal investment in research and development would increase to $137 billion in 2007, but in a repeat of past budgets, the continuing Administration priorities of weapons development and space vehicles development would take up the entire increase and more, leaving declining funding for the remainder of the R&D portfolio," according to AAAS Wednesday e-mail.

Check out their preliminary analysis.