It put a man on the moon and gave the world the non-stick saucepan, but faced with an impending budget crisis, Nasa has been forced to cancel a more down-to-earth project: gardening.
Staff at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, have been warned that no new flowers will be planted until further notice, to save money.
Pavements will be unweeded, lawns unwatered, and the grass will be allowed to grow a foot higher than it has ever done before.
An internal memo sent to Nasa staff said the landscaping and grounds maintenance contracts have been ”descoped due to funding limitations”.
Workers at the centre, which produces engines for the space shuttle and equipment for the space station, have been told not to complain.
The memo says: ”There will be no new flowers planted, weeds will not be removed from plant beds, parking areas and sidewalks, edging will only be performed along sidewalks and only in high-visibility areas. The grass in other than high-visibility areas will be allowed to reach a height of 8 to 12 inches and there will be no more special work requests accepted.”
It adds: ”Please accept the fact that the centre grounds are not going to be kept in a manner that we are accustomed to, and do not blame the grounds and landscaping contractors.”
Nasa would not say how much of its R100-billion annual budget the cuts would save.
”I don’t have the answer to that, and it’s not a high priority quite frankly to find out,” a centre spokesperson said.
Nasa scientists have been forced to cut costs since President George Bush called for astronauts to be sent back to the moon by 2020, and a possible manned mission to Mars to follow.
This month, Nasa said the twin Voyager probes, launched in 1977 and currently more than 9,6-billion kilometres from Earth, might have to be shut down in October. — Guardian Unlimited Â