- Australia
- n. A country lying in the South Sea, whose industrial and commercial development has been unspeakably retarded by an unfortunate dispute among geographers as to whether it is a continent or an island.
NASA has announced a delay in the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from Dec08 until Feb09.
The delay does not seem to be a necessity and is going to cost NASA $7 million a month ($21 million total) which will come out of a slush fund built into the LRO program budget. (If the agency is canceling missions to get up to "the Moon and beyond", why is there a $21 million slush fund in the LRO budget and how many other budgets have similar slush funds that could be transferred back to other programs?)
DoD will be taking over the launch window and rocket to test a reusable satellite. There is no indication that there is any urgency in launching that craft early, but DoD wouldn't be advertising it if there were. But the launch will get the satellite up there while King George is still on his thrown so we might be going somewhere else before the end of the year.
