WASHINGTON -
U.S. President Barack Obama's NASA budget does not match his campaign promises
about the future of the U.S. space program, the Democratic chairman of the Senate
subcommittee that oversees NASA policy said Thursday.
Sen. Bill
Nelson (D-Fla) said he expects the budget figures to change after a three-month
review ordered by the White House to take stock of NASA's post-space shuttle human
spaceflight plans.
Obama's
2010 budget proposal orders a review of NASA's plans to replace
the space shuttle with new vehicles designed to serve the International Space
Station and eventually carry astronauts to the moon.
Nelson said
the budget, which supports completing nine space shuttle missions before the
end of 2010, is a step in the right direction.
"But
down the road the administration's budget does not match what candidate Obama
said about the future of our space program. Still, he's assured me these
numbers are subject to change, pending a review he has ordered of NASA,"
Nelson, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation science and
space subcommittee said in a written statement. "This review, which should
be finished in 90 days, is an opportunity to nail down support for human
spaceflight."
Funding
boost requested
The budget
proposal endorses flying eight remaining missions before retiring the
space shuttle in 2010. An additional mission to deliver the Alpha Magnetic
Spectrometer to the space station will be flown "after these flights if it
can be safely and affordably completed in calendar year 2010," according
to budget documents released May 7.
But Nelson
said he had been assured by Obama that NASA will be allowed to finish "all
nine space shuttle missions, regardless of how long it takes."
All told,
Obama is requesting roughly $18.7 billion for NASA for 2010, a 5 percent
increase that includes a roughly $150 million budget hike for the Exploration
Mission Directorate - the part of NASA in charge of building the Ares I rocket
and Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle that comprise the early elements of the moon-bound
Constellation program.
Of the
nearly $4 billion Obama is requesting for Exploration Systems, $3.5 billion
would go to Constellation. While that is nearly $200 million more than
Constellation stood to receive next year under former President George W.
Bush's final NASA budget, subsequent budget years are not as generously funded.
Obama's plan calls for spending a total of $16.4 billion on Constellation
between 2011 and 2013, or about $3.5 billion less than Bush had planned to
spend during the same three-year period.
NASA
review ordered
However, as
noted in a NASA budget summary posted on the agency's Web site May 7, the
Constellation budget figures are "placeholders" that will be updated
following a review "led by an independent, blue-ribbon team of
experts."
Acting NASA
Administrator Chris Scolese announced during a budget briefing for reporters
that the blue-ribbon panel would be chaired by Norman Augustine, the former
Lockheed Martin chief executive officer.
Scolese
said the review would also assess options for operating the International Space
Station beyond 2016. He declined to speculate on what Ares and Orion
alternatives might be examined during the review.
Constellation
has been the subject of several reports released in recent weeks raising doubt
that the program can meet its schedule within the current budget.
Obama's
call for a review of Constellation was praised by the Pasadena, Calif.-based
Planetary Society, which previously urged NASA to collaborate with
international partners in sending
humans to the Moon while focusing human exploration efforts on near Earth
asteroids and eventually Mars.
"The
independent review may help advance recommendations that The Planetary Society made
in its Roadmap to Space," Lou Friedman, executive director of the
Planetary Society said in a written statement. "We have advocated that
more international cooperation be incorporated into plans for the human return
to the moon, and this review is a chance to introduce exciting milestones on
the road to Mars."
Elliot
Pullham, chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs-based Space
Foundation, criticized Obama's NASA request as "disappointingly
business-as-usual."
"Despite
what appears to be an increase to the top line, the NASA budget continues a
more-than-two-decade decline in real, inflation-adjusted dollars," Pullham said
in a statement.
As widely
expected, Obama's budget includes more money for Earth science than those
proposed by his predecessor.
Under
Obama's plan, Earth science would grow at a steady clip during the next five
years, eventually topping $1.6 billion in 2014 and overtaking planetary science
- traditionally the best funded piece of NASA's science budget.
Aeronautics
research is also in for an increase under Obama's plan, steadily growing from
$500 million this year to $536 million in 2014.
Space
Operations, the part of NASA's budget that funds the space shuttle, and
international space station, would get a $400 million increase for 2010, rising
to nearly $6.2 billion before falling below $3.7 billion as NASA starts to
realize savings from retiring the shuttle.
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