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GOP may finally succeed in unrelenting quest to kill two NASA climate satellites (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/usa@midwest.social
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[–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

Satellites don’t just hang out in orbit, they need frequent adjustments or they’ll crash into the earth. So they’re not just turning them off and we can turn them back on later. Although as I understand it, one can be linked to the ISS in a nonfunctional state to be used later. But if they get turned off, at minimum one is crashing and burning.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Absolutely, having worked in remote existence I'm well aware of how much support and maintenance it takes to keep up equipment and collect the data.

    The article wasn't clear that Trump was trying to cut the collection & analysis from the headline and several paragraphs in. Initial impression were that we had more orbiters in line for launch that were being scrapped half built... Also tragic, but having working orbiters makes budget inertia slightly more likely to win against a cut.

    Several budget cuts have been overturned by lawsuit and although they take months, the orbiters can probably be left in a reduced budget or even maybe limbo for that period while still being recoverable (IMO).

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