That's useful to know. I still think there's a lot of uncertainty which can't be cleared up easily; it's difficult to know what's really going on inside such ne

That's useful to know. I still think there's a lot of uncertainty which can't be cleared up easily; it's difficult to know what's really going on inside such negotiations: All parties to the budget negotiations have an idea what the limits are. If party A believes that party B's bottom line is $X, party A will adjust their proposals accordingly. Also, what we see is just a glimpse into the process; party C might want to cancel a project and strike a deal with party D, and then the proposal announced by D includes that deal. Also, we don't know if NASA's budget would have been without the budget cuts; maybe this project would have been included.