Tyson talks NASA

The American space program (human and robotic) is in trouble.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson testified to Congress in no uncertain terms:

""Currently, NASA's Mars science exploration budget is being decimated, we are not going back to the Moon, and plans for astronauts to visit Mars are delayed until the 2030s --on funding not yet allocated, overseen by a congress and president to be named later."


There is no plan for NASA to go to Mars. There is, in fact, no approved plan to go anywhere beyond low Earth orbit.  Not to the Moon or L1 or an asteroid: NOTHING.  And there is not ONE approved mission for the new Space Launch System.  While NASA Administrator Bolden says the murderous 2013 budget proposal will "enable NASA to execute the balanced program of science, space exploration, technology, and aeronautics agreed to by the President and a bipartisan majority of Congress," it does no such thing. Congress is already complaining the Administration has eviscerated the program laid out in the last NASA Authorization Bill. 
 
Space exploration is more than NASA, but NASA is the "prime mover," the world's largest space agency. And it's in deep trouble indeed.