While
NASA fared better than many federal agencies in U.S. President George W. Bush's
2006 budget request, the White House is not seeking as much money for the U.S. space
agency as previously planned.
The
White House is seeking $16.45 billion for NASA in the 2006 budget. That's an
increase of 2.4 percent over what the U.S. space agency has in its 2005
budget, but still about $500 million less than what the agency had been
expecting.
When
Bush gave NASA a new space exploration vision last year, he also pledged to
help pay for it with three straight years of roughly 5 percent budget
increases. Bush -- with help from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
(R-Texas) -- delivered on that promise for 2005, but his 2006 request forecasts
much more modest increases through the end of the decade.
NASA's
2006 budget request, which is headed to Congress Feb. 7, keeps many of the
agency's space exploration goals on track, but a number of high-profile efforts
have been canceled, postponed or scaled back.
The
biggest casualty of NASA's latest budget request is the Jupiter Icy Moons
Orbiter (JIMO) mission, which is effectively canceled in the 2006 request. NASA
had planned to launch the multi-billion dollar probe around 2015 as the Project
Prometheus nuclear power and propulsion initiative's flagship demonstration.
NASA
officials now say JIMO is too ambitious an undertaking for an initial
demonstration, and a search for an alternative mission is underway. NASA is
still requesting $320 million to continue nuclear power and propulsion work in
2006, but that is substantially lower than the roughly $500 million the agency
had planned to spend based on last year's five-year budget projection.
NASA
also has trimmed its request for Project Constellation, which is intended to
develop a Crew Exploration Vehicle that can transport astronauts to the Moon.
NASA
Comptroller Steven Isakowitz, briefing reporters
ahead of the formal budget release, said the $1.1 billion the agency is seeking
is enough to keep development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle on track for a
2014 delivery. He said NASA still intends to award at least two design
contracts later this year and hold a 2008 fly-off that will determine who gets
the contract to build the multi-billion dollar vehicle.
Spending
on the space shuttle program is expected to drop to $4.3 billion in 2006 after
topping out at $5 billion this year. That $5 billion figure includes $760
million tied to improvements made in the wake of the February 2003 Columbia accident. Still,
NASA's 2006 request for the shuttle program is about $200 million higher than
what the agency had previously forecast.
NASA's
budget request includes no money for any type of Hubble Space Telescope
servicing mission, as first reported by Space
News. Instead NASA is seeking $75 million to continue development of a deorbit mission the agency needs to launch around the end
of the decade to steer the giant telescope safely into the ocean once it is no
longer capable of doing science. The agency also is asking for an additional
$20 million to investigate ways short of launching a space shuttle or robotic
repair mission to keep the telescope in service as long as possible. Hubble is
expected to go dark in 2007 or 2008 as critical components fail.
Isakowitz said the agency
recently decided that there is not enough time to mount a robotic repair
mission that stands a good chance of saving Hubble.
A
National Academy of Sciences panel reached the same conclusion in December and
recommended that NASA reinstate a space shuttle servicing that the space agency
canceled last year citing safety concerns. Isakowitz
said NASA still thinks repairing Hubble is not worth risking the lives of
astronauts. "We know the academy reached a different conclusion," he
said. "We don't agree with the academy on their findings." Among
other budget highlights:
- NASA's
Science Mission Directorate would get about $5.5 billion in 2006, a budget
that Isakowitz said keeps the James Webb Space
Telescope on course for a 2011 launch, continues the development of
robotic missions to the Moon and Mars, and adequately funds a number of
ongoing Earth science programs.
- NASA's
Aeronautics Mission Directorate would see its budget drop to $850 million
in 2006, marking the beginning of a steady decline that pares the
directorate back to $700 million by decade's end.