NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Defends NASA's Budget. Image Credit/NASA graphic
Senate appropriators sparred with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Monday over the agency’s commitment to the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, the bi-partisan Congressional blue print agreed to by President Obama that aims for a new heavy lift rocket and crew exploration vehicle able to transport astronauts to deep space destinations as well as the International Space Station.
The authorization measure, which recommends but does not appropriate funding, calls on NASA to have both the rocket and capsule ready for operations by the end of 2016 and to do so by making use of investments in the all but canceled Constellation Program as well as shuttle technologies.
“We are not stalling. We are not standing by. We are not wasting time,” Bolden told the Commerce, Justince and Science Appropriations Subcommittee. Monday’s hearing was advanced from May 5 after the House, Senate and President Obama reached an agreement late last week on a spending plan that would cover government operations for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year — or through Sept. 30.
The latest in a series of budget Continuing Resolutions prevented a shutdown of the federal government through this week, giving lawmakers time to fill out the details of a spending plan for the rest of 2011. Spending this year for NASA has been restrained to $18.7 billion — or the same level as 2010. The latest CR will cut $38 billion throughout the federal government for the rest of this year, though it was not clear how much, if any, would come from the space program.
President Obama’s proposed 2012 NASA budget would hold the agency at $18.7 billion through 2016, much less than envisioned by the 2010 authorization measure. The White House budget run out includes $2.8 billion annually for work on the heavy lift rocket and the Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle, which will be closely patterned after the Constellation Program’s four-person Orion capsule.
The grim funding outlook, which NASA has already suggested to Congress will not be enough to achieve the 2016 objectives, had the agency’s human space flight supporters on the Subcommittee anxious — even with authorization act provisions that call on NASA to amend rather than cancel Constellation program contracts for Orion and its dual rockets. Those include the Ares 1 Crew Launch Vehicle and larger Ares V, which was designed to launch a propulsion stage and lunar lander to carry astronauts to the moon.
“It does not seem the contract modifications to achieve the results are happening,” said U. S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, of Texas, the Subcommittee’s ranking Republican. “Is it just going to be strung out until it can’t be revived?”
Bolden offered Hutchison assurances that was not the case. However, he said that even modified Constellation contracts will require restructuring to cut costs in line with future budgets. And NASA’s heavy lift rocket plans are more in line with shuttle propulsion elements than the Ares rockets, he added.
Some of the details of NASA’s strategy could be forthcoming to lawmakers within the next week, Bolden told the panel.
“Now that we have a plan, and if that plan is sufficiently supported by the budget that we say we need, we will develop for the nation the best heavy lift vehicle it has ever had and a deep space vehicle that will do all the things we have every dreamed about,” Bolden insisted.
Under the strategy unveiled by the president last year, NASA will extend operations of the International Space Station through 2020. The moon disappears as human destination, replaced by a human mission to a near Earth asteroid by about 2025 and to the moons of Mars a decade later.
Even with revived deep space ambitions, NASA will be expected to maintain a balanced agenda that supports robotic planetary missions as well as advances in aeronautics and climate research and educational endeavors intended to improve the math and science skills of the nation’s youth. Other Subcommittee members also said they expect NASA to keep each of its 10 major field centers thriving.
“We are in an atmosphere for making every dollar count,” said U. S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, of Maryland, the subcommittee chairwoman.
“We have lots of ambitious. Now, we are trying to see if we have the wallet to match it.”