US midterm elections: Policy row launches NASA into limbo, Nature

"Congress baulked, and on 29 September passed an act requesting funds for projects initiated under Constellation and granting less than half of the administration's request for private spaceflight. With Congress now in recess and unable to allocate funds, NASA is funded at current levels and cannot change course. "It has to keep spending on programmes that it's going to kill, and can't start new programmes that it wants to," says Keith Cowing, editor-in-chief of the website NASA Watch. ... For Cowing, competing interests could spell a troubled future for the space agency. "How can NASA progress if it's pulled in ten different directions?" he asks. "