Posted on 02/01/2005 7:44:03 PM PST by ambrose
Bush To Ask for More Money for NASA
By Michael Cabbage
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
02/01/05 7:34 AM PT
The White House will ask Congress next week to increase NASA's budget again in 2006 to help finance President Bush's plans for manned missions to the moon and Mars.
Outgoing NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe made the announcement Monday during his keynote speech to the First Space Exploration Conference at Walt Disney World. More than 1,000 participants from NASA and industry are meeting in Central Florida for three days to discuss strategies for making Bush's space vision a reality.
Staying Focused
NASA's budget rose US$822 million to $16.2 billion for 2005, making it one of the few agencies in the federal government to get more money this year. O'Keefe did not specify what the amount of the requested budget increase for 2006 would be.
"Next Monday, when the president proposes the budget for fiscal year 2006, you will see that the administration is determined to continue the exploration agenda at the pace that President Bush announced last year," said O'Keefe, who will leave the space agency this month to become Louisiana State University's chancellor. "The really great news is that NASA will be among the very few domestic discretionary agencies with an increase."
O'Keefe warned the conference, however, that if NASA strayed from a focused, disciplined approach, the spending increase could easily disappear. U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., echoed that warning and cautioned that any NASA budget increases will face a tough battle in Congress.
No Gravy Train
"I expect things to be hard this year and in years to come," Weldon said. "For industry, they are going to have to dig deep into their most creative and innovative and efficient concepts and ideas. Industry cannot expect this to be a gravy train where it can underperform and still continue to get funding."
Weldon supports an effort in Congress to eliminate the appropriations subcommittee that handles the annual spending bill for NASA and for the departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development.
NASA would be moved to a different subcommittee that funds the Department of Energy and water-development projects, meaning the space agency no longer would directly compete against housing and veterans' needs for money.
"I think it will be an easier fight for the NASA dollar," Weldon said.
Competing for Contracts
Also at the conference Monday, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced it will lead a team of five other aerospace contractors -- Orbital Sciences, EADS Space Transportation, United Space Alliance, Hamilton Sundstrand and Honeywell -- to compete for the contract to design and build NASA's next manned spacecraft .
The Crew Exploration Vehicle is scheduled to make its initial test flight in 2008, with the first manned launch to Earth orbit slated for 2014 and the first lunar mission planned between 2015 and 2020. Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) announced an agreement last week to also compete as a team for the contract.
Bush added that in making this decision, he was greatly influenced by the exploits of former Senator John Glenn, one of the original Mercury astronauts, who flew again years later aboard the Space shuttle. Bush said he wants to send as many Democrat senators into deep space as can safely fit aboard..referring by name to the senator from Maryland, the President said, "to the moon, Barbara, to the moon..."
And the good news is that they will give it all to Dick Rutan????
Now is not really a good time IMO . . . unless it gives us a military advantage.
If we start now, we may be on Mars by 2030. Now is the time to get started.
I really hope that NASA will move beyond the obsolete space shuttle program and take manned missions further into space. We have not been to the Moon in 30 years and there is no reason we shouldn't go back (modern technology would probably yield far more discoveries than were possible during the Apollo missions) and Mars would be a spectacular and achievable accomplishment.
I was hoping they would become the first solar astronauts.
I think we could just give 1/10 that amount to Dick Rutan and probably get more out of it.
If everyone else is having to take budget cuts, much as I would like NASA to get all the money they ask for, I think it's only fair to ask NASA to take their share of the cuts too.
I'm sure I'll get slammed, but this is one program that needs its funding cut, IMO. Sorry folks, times are serious. The deficit is growing, we're at war and we want to continue maintaining our military. We do need to fix social security also. I just don't see NASA as a priority. I'll readily admit it if I'm wrong to feel this way, but need some convincing.
The Apollo program never should have been stopped...major national error. I worked, as a young engineer, on Apollo and it was a magnificent program from which we not only accomplished never-befores but learned and developed so much technologically that is used today. By now, we should have had a base established on the moon, creating all the needed environment it needs, to do scientific work and building spacecraft for further space travel....but politics prevailed.
With Mars, robots are a much wiser choice.
I think the optimal scenario would be for private enterprise to undertake this task. I think that further Space Shuttle missions are basically a waste of money. However, I think that NASA is necessary at this stage to accomplish a Moon or Mars landing. I agree there is a huge expense; however, there is much that can be learned from a scientific and military standpoint that will be well worth the short-term costs.
3words: Lunar Mass Driver
I'd much rather a Mars mission than the Moon mission, unless it's a real step forward like a Moon Base. Now either one of those would be exciting, but another trip to the Moon to play golf decades later, meh.
Hmm. Second term tax relief or another flag on a rock.
Tough choice.
Maybe we can just sneak in and do the jobs that Martians don't want to do.
Much of what NASA does is dual-use, where the technology can be applied or directly used in military applications. The shuttle crews do a fair amount of classified work.
Give it a damn rest for a while, George!
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