NASA has given its perspective on the recent US government shut down, despite being officially 9.5 billion miles away.
A crew member from the Voyager 2 wrote on his Twitter account late Monday, saying, "Due to government shutdown, we will not be posting or responding from this account,". He then added, "Farewell, humans. Sort it out yourselves."
The tweet from NASA may be testament to the sentiments of many others who feel frustration and exasperation with the news of the Congress deciding on a shut down. It was observed that on midday by Tuesday, the NASA tweet had been retweeted about 7,000 more times.
NASA stands as one of the numerous federal government agencies that stand to be affected with the government shutdown. The shutdown occurred because the Congress' could not agree on issues like the debt ceiling, and could therefore not pass a budget.
Other agencies also went to their respective social media accounts to share news, and later, their views on the shutdown. Twitter, especially, became a very popular venue to air grievances.
NASA's near Earth object office tweeted hours before the Congress deadline to tell their followers that they would not be responding or posting from their official account, in the event of a shutdown. They also said that they were hoping to resume their tweets soon.
The near Earth object office has the responsibility of monitoring and reporting any asteroids that could potentially threaten the planet. Last February, they were able to track the 150-foot large asteroid that came closer to Earth than the moon.
Because of the US government shutdown, 97% of NASA employees, or about 18,000 individuals had to go on a leave of absence.
The only NASA employees still left working were the astronauts who were still aboard the international space station.
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