 |
 |
||
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
 |
Planetary News: Space Policy (2009)Proposed NASA Budget Emphasizes Earth Observations, Human SpaceflightBy Amir AlexanderMay 7, 2009
The Obama Administration released its budget proposal for NASA today, asking Congress to provide $18.7 billion for the agency in fiscal year 2010. This level of funding would represent a $900 million increase over the 2009 budget, and comes on top of $1 billion in additional funds from the 2009 Recovery Act. "With this budget," said Christopher Scolese, Acting NASA Administrator, "NASA is able to support a balanced portfolio of priorities in space exploration." Along with the release of the budget proposal, the Administration also announced the formation of an independent panel to review NASA's human spaceflight operations. The panel will review NASA's current plans for human spaceflight after the shuttle's retirement, and look into possible alternatives approaches. The review will be headed by former aerospace executive Norman Augustine, a one-time member of The Planetary Society's board. The new budget puts a strong emphasis on maintaining and increasing current Earth observation capabilities, which suffered a significant setback with the failure of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) earlier this year. In line with the recommendations of the National Research Council's decadal survey of 2007, the budget proposal includes an increase of $1.3 billion in funding for Earth Science over a 5-year span, from 2009 to 2013. "Making observations of Earth from space is vital to our future" said Bill Nye the Science Guy, Vice President of The Planetary Society, adding that the Society strongly supports increased funding for Earth-monitoring missions. Other budget highlights include the beginning of work on the joint NASA-ESA flagship mission to Europa, and continued work towards the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory in 2011, and the James Webb Space Telescope in 2014. The budget also funds the creation of the Lunar Quest Program, which will include several lunar missions planned for the coming years. The proposed budget reflects NASA's continued commitment to retiring the space shuttle by the end of 2010. Funds are provided for nine shuttle launches during this time span: eight to complete the International space Station, and one maintenance mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. In the meantime work will continue on the shuttle's replacement, the launcher Ares I and the crew vehicle Orion, with the aim of reaching flight capability by 2015. Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society, welcomed the budget proposal, saying the "it makes it clear that President Obama indeed wants the American Space Program to inspire the world with new discoveries." Nevertheless, the Society urges the Administration to increase funding for Mars exploration, to compensate for severe cuts to the program in recent years. "[Mars] should be the target of a robust robotic program to pave the way for future human missions" said Jim Bell, the Society's President. Did you like this story? Send
it to a friend or share it at:
Slashdot - Digg this - Reddit - Del.icio.us - Newsvine - NowPublic |
||||||
 |
 |
||||||
[ what is this? ]