At about an hour before midnight and a federal government shutdown, Congress reached a 'historic' budget deal in order to keep the government operating through the 2011 fiscal year. The final cut: $38.5 billion. So, thousands of government employees can breath easier knowing that they do not have to endure a layoff of unspecified time. For NASA, the new budget means that all systems are go.
According to Space.com, if the government had shut down, the most pessimistic estimates calculated that all but about 500 of NASA's 20,000 employees would be out of a job until a budget deal was reached. With such a meager staff on the job, all but the most basic of NASA functions tied directly to safeguarding astronauts' lives and NASA property, namely active missions, would cease. Among the cuts: all NASA visitor centers would shut down, public outreach would cease, all data collected from the still-monitored space missions would pile up with no one to interpret it,Endeavor's last mission would be put on hold, NASA websites and NASA TV would cease to operate, and even employees with 'official' Twitter or Facebook pages would not be allowed to post updates.
Fortunately,none of this will come to pass thanks to the budget agreement.
Now for the bad news: as the budget deal agreed upon by Congress is just a few hours old, no one knows the exact specifics of what it specifies, especially in regards to the $38.5 billion in cuts. For this information, we will have to wait for a few hours more.
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