Sunday space column: Test flightscan give a little help to jobs crisis

From the "every little bit helps" department: Don't be too quick to scoff at the billion or so dollars that some U.S. senators are trying to add to the NASA budget for test flights.

Bill Nelson, D-Florida, seems to have support on some influential Senate committees for adding almost 1 billion more dollars to NASA's budget over the next five years for tests that could help lead to a Saturn V class super rocket needed for human flights beyond Earth's orbit.

There are good reasons why Nelson, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and others inside and outside the agency continue to lobby for what seems like a small amount of funding to keep a flight-testing program alive in the short-term.

Read the rest of my Sunday morning space column.