WASHINGTON -
Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) unveiled legislation Dec. 17 aimed at keeping the
U.S. space shuttle fleet flying beyond its planned 2010 retirement.
The plan
calls for giving NASA $3.7 billion designed to make up for past funding
shortfalls that he said jeopardize continued operation of the shuttle and
timely development of its planned replacement, the Orion
Crew Exploration Vehicle and Ares I rocket.
The new
system currently is expected to make its debut in
March 2015, some four and a half years after NASA plans to fly the shuttle
for the last time.
Weldon's
legislation, which he plans to introduce in Congress in coming days, would
close the gap in U.S. human spaceflights by authorizing "such sums as may
be necessary" to fly the space shuttle twice a year between 2010 and 2015.
"My
bill plugs NASA's human spaceflight gap and ensures a smoother landing for the shuttle
workforce and lift-off for Constellation," Weldon said in a statement
released following a Dec. 17 press conference at the Kennedy Space Center
Visitor Complex.
Weldon's
office made no accommodations for media outside central Florida to cover the
announcement. According to local media accounts of the event, Weldon estimated
that conducting the post-2010 shuttle flights would cost $2 billion a year.
NASA currently spends about twice that amount on shuttle operations.
Weldon's
announcement came as Congress was poised to take up an omnibus spending bill
that includes the $17.3 billion the White House requested for NASA for 2008,
but would increase the agency's spending on science and aeronautics at the
expense of Orion
and Ares. Also stripped from the compromise measure was an extra $1 billion
approved by the Senate to help NASA recover financially from the 2003 space shuttle Columbia
accident.
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