2020 Will Show Less Weather Satellites

   Low budgets and several rocket accidents are the cause of the predicted decline.  These satellites would have been operating for up to ten years each.  For example, a global climate change satellite that launched from Vandenburg Air Force base in California ignited its first and second stage rockets, but somehow crashed into the south pacific ocean  near Chile, enroute to an antarctic rendevous.  Accidents like this, along with downsized budgets at NASA, is predicted to lower the number of United States satellites watching the Earth.  A study recently published by the nations top science advisers, estimated that the fleet of science satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), would decline from a peak of 110 in 2011, to fewer than 30 in 2020.  See full story, http://www.nytimes.com/.