Space Maintenance
"Four spacewalks are also on the agenda, aimed at servicing the joints which rotate the ISS's solar arrays."
Big can of WD40 and a smack with a hammer??? :)
The crew of space shuttle Endeavour is set for tomorrow's scheduled launch to the International Space Station on mission STS-126 to equip the outpost with extra kit for its intended expansion to accommodate six full-time residents. The Endeavour STS-126 crew. Pic: NASA Aboard Endeavour for tomorrow's lift-off at 19:55 EST ( …
Quoting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_budget
"As seen in the year-by-year breakdown listed above, the total amounts (in real dollars) that NASA has been budgeted from 1958 to 2008 amounts to $592.380 billion dollars -- an average of $11.847 billion per year. According to the Office of Management and Budget and the Air Force Almanac, when measured in real terms (Meaning: if the value of $1.00 at today's rate equaled the value of $1.00 in 1958), the figure is $810.459 billion, or an average of $16.290 billion dollars per year over its fifty year history.
For comparison, the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars have cost U.S. taxpayers approximately $604 billion over the past seven years vs. the entire fifty year history of NASA expenditures.[2][3]
NASA's current FY 2008 budget of $17.318 billion represents about 0.6% of the $2.9 trillion United States federal budget."
Try comparing that with their cowboy games budget which is close to a trillion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_United_States#Budget
It's not pocket change for me either, but sure is nothing compared to the US budget or even the defence budget alone.