Science and aeronautics spending hit as agency strives to pay for final Shuttles to complete Space Station
NASA has been forced to shift $4.6 billion from its space science and exploration budgets for 2007-11 to cover a shortfall in funding for the remaining Space Shuttle flights to complete assembly of the International Space Station. “I wish we had not had to do it, but it is what we needed to do,” says administrator Mike Griffin.
The shift comes as the White House requests a 3.2% increase in NASA’s budget for fiscal year 2007, to almost $16.8 billion, at a time when most other US government accounts, except defence, are being cut back. Griffin says the budget supports space exploration, completion of the Station with the minimum number of Shuttle flights, and fielding of the replacement Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) by 2014 or sooner.
A $3-5 billion funding shortfall was identified late last year when “placeholders” in out-year Shuttle and ISS budget estimates were found to be inadequate. “We have solved the problem in the 2007-11 budget,” says Griffin. With “no real subtlety”, NASA has transferred $1.9 billion to the Station and $2.7 billion to the Shuttle for the 17 flights remaining before its retirement in 2010.
The agency hopes to save money by transferring Shuttle facilities and resources to the Shuttle-derived CEV as the programme winds down. This could begin with modification of one of the two Shuttle launch pads for CEV launch vehicle testing. “The transition from Shuttle to CEV is our biggest challenge,” says Griffin. “But integrating the Shuttle and exploration programmes gives us a real opportunity to make the CEV operational much sooner than 2014.”
Despite the funding shifts, NASA spending for space science will still increase by 1.5% to $5.25 billion in 2007, and by more than 30% to $3.98 billion for exploration systems, to start CEV development. But funding for aeronautics research will be cut by 18%, to $724 million, despite Congress restoring a $200 million cut in the FY2006 budget.
“Sixteen-seventeenths of our budget is space-oriented. By and large that is what NASA is being paid to do,” Griffin says.
GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
