Posted by tourdemars to Budget at November 14, 2002 12:00 PM

Five billion dollars is a lot of money. A line of dollar bills five billion long would reach to the moon and back. Finding that you have a $5 billion budget shortfall—as NASA, America's space agency, did last year—is therefore no mean feat. Cash crunches are nothing new at NASA, but this one is more serious. In the past, when the agency has waved its begging-bowl before American politicians, the bowl has usually been filled. This time, neither President George Bush nor Congress is interested in letting NASA spend its way out of its problems. A true crisis has finally arrived. And, a year ago, Mr Bush appointed Sean O'Keefe, a self-professed “bean-counter”, to deal with it.