Artists concept of astronauts as they explore an asteroid on a future mission. Image credit/Lockheed Martin
President Obama on Monday signed the 2010 NASA Authorization bill, providing the space agency with a three-year road map that includes work on a new heavy lift rocket and multi-purpose crew vehicle for future deep space missions as well as funding to support commercial crew and cargo spacecraft development for transportation to the International Space Station.
The 42 page Senate initiated measure cleared the House on Sept. 29 in response to a White House strategy to send human explorers to an asteroid by 2025 and a Mars orbital expedition a decade later.
The bill, S. 3729, which was approved by the Senate in August and passed by the House by a wide margin with bi-partisan support includes the same $58.4 billion in top line spending requested by the White House as part of the 2011 budget. However, the appropriations bill required to place the actual funding — $19 billion for 2011 — behind the new road map has yet to be approved by Congress. That will be debated in the House and Senate as part of an all inclusive omnibus appropriations bill, following the November Congressional elections.
Bolden thanks White House, Congress for support
“It’s an important bi-partisan legislation dedicated to advancing our goals in science, technology development and aeronautics,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a news briefing on Monday. “Our nation’s leaders have come together and endorsed a blue print for NASA, one that requires us to think and act boldly as we move our agency into the future. This legislation supports the President’s ambitious plan for NASA to pioneer new frontiers of innovation and discovery.”
The three-year legislation calls on NASA to develop a new heavy lift rocket and multi-purpose crew capsule by late 2016. The bill specifies $6.92 billion for the propulsion work over the next three years, and $3.92 billion for a spacecraft that would replace the space shuttle.
In addition, the bill designates just over $1.6 billion over the next three years for the NASA funded development of commercial crew and cargo transportation services.
Another $1.14 billion would be invested in the development of new exploration technologies.
In addition, the bill extends operations of the International Space Station from 2016 to 2020, a step widely supported among NASA’s 14 partners in the project.
The measure also calls for the funding of an encore shuttle mission, using Atlantis, to provide supplies to the space station. The mission, if funded by appropriators, is tentatively scheduled to lift off in late June and would represent the 135th and final flight of the shuttle program.
Garver offers a timetable
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who joined the news briefing, outlined a tentative time table for some of the accomplishments.
They included 2014-15 for launchings of commercial rockets with astronauts on missions to the International Space Station and late 2016 for the availability of an Orion-like NASA multi-purpose crew vehicle that could reach the station with astronauts if commercial providers cannot.
The shuttle’s ramping down has been marked by hundreds of layoffs among NASA’s contractor workforce, a hardship that Bolden acknowledged on Monday.
“As the shuttle program comes to an end, we know this is a very difficult time for many of our contractors. But we believe the long term future for them and the rest of the NASA workforce is bright. And I have to stress they are our most valuable resource, ” Bolden said.
“There is still a long way to go as we turn our attention to the 2011 appropriations process. But we are committed to working together with the continued wide public support for NASA and the bi-partisan backing of Congress.
Today’s vote of confidence from the president assures America’s space program will remain at the forefront of a bright future for our nation.”
NASA still faces budget challenges
Some lawmakers have questioned whether the authorization bill short changes the new blue print that terminates the previous administration’s Constellation back-to-the-moon program. Constellation’s goal was to return U. S. astronauts to the lunar surface by 2020.
Nelson offered assurances the new legislation actually envisions $11.5 billion for the heavy lift effort over six years, on top of the more than $9 billion invested in heavy lift and spacecraft development during Constellation.
“Now, if we cannot develop a new rocket for $11.5 billion, building on a lot of the technologies that we’re already developing with $9 billion — if we can’t do it for that, then we ought to question whether we can build a rocket,” said Nelson. “We are in fiscally austere times, and we have to be realistic about the spending of monies.”
Soon after taking office, President Obama called for a review of the Constellation program by a panel of experts led by Norman Augustine, the retired Lockheed Martin executive. During 2009, the panel that came to be known as the Augustine Committee found Constellation so under funded its goals could not be achieved.
Monday, physicist Sally Ride, the former NASA astronaut and a member of the Augustine panel, praised the bi-partisanship that led to the passage of the authorization bill.
“I think that we are all excited about the new path with more emphasis on technology and more of an emphasis on commercial capabilities done in the right way,” Ride said.
However, Ride cautioned that NASA will be challenged to avoid the same obstacles as Constellation. The panel recommended that NASA receive a gradual $3 billion annual increase in funding, something the White House and Congress could not fully achieve.
“The 600 pound gorilla here is the U. S. economy and the need for fiscal responsibility across all agencies,” Ride said. “So, would be have liked more money in the NASA budget? Yes. But the realities are very clear. The fact that NASA did get an increase reflects the support NASA has across the political spectrum — from the president, who is very supportive of the space program and support from Congress. I think this is just an excellent bill that will take NASA forward and is responsive to the Augustine Committee’s report.”