Report: Congressional Pet Projects May Be Keeping NASA On Ground Tue, 13 Jun '06 Ah, Pork... Money earmarked to be used by NASA to send scientific probes to distant planets and return astronauts to the moon, may be used instead for projects closer to home that have little to nothing to do with exploring space. In short, it's called pork... as in "pork barrel projects" that politicians have authorized for their districts, and that NASA will be footing the bill for. USA Today reports that list includes construction or renovation of dozens of museums, planetariums and science labs for colleges... a website and laboratory for the Gulf of Maine Aquarium in Portland... and construction of the headquarters building for a West Virginia non-profit research group created by congressman Alan Mollohan, who is currently the subject of a congressional ethics probe. Since 2001, Congress has directed NASA to spend more than $3 billion on special projects -- most of them sought by individual lawmakers, for the benefit of their home districts. ....MORE