Nasa IT spending comes down to earth

The US space agency Nasa has sent a rocket to those who were hoping for an increase in its IT spending by slashing its IT budget.

According to The Washington Post, Nasa has ordered managers to review all IT purchases before proceeding, effectively freezing new projects for the next two months.

A spokesman from the agency's Chief Information Office explained that major IT investments, from replacing a million-dollar server to an expensive computer network upgrade, would have to be evaluated.

"We want to use this as an opportunity to look at the major investments that we are making," he said. "We have to be frugal spending the agency's IT funds."

The spending freeze order, which has been placed on all projects costing more than $100,000 (£62,000), will hold until mid-February. It will not affect the $1.3bn (£805m) in ongoing essential IT projects.

However, the freeze has sent jitters through the industry, as Nasa is considered a big IT spender.

The US state sector has been operating freezes on IT for some time and the industry was hoping to this being relaxed soon.

Now, with NASA joining the freeze, many fear that the industry will be in the doldrums much longer.