In the near term, at least, the proposed investment in NASAs new exploration goals is fairly modest. Bush has said he will propose next week to increase NASAs $15.4 billion budget by $1 billion over the next five years. At the same time, NASA plans to shift $11 billion over the same period to the new exploration goals, including the development of a new spaceship, the so-called Crew Exploration Vehicle, now known as Project Constellation.
Bushs plan would put the moon mission in high gear only after the international space station is finished in 2010 and the space shuttle fleet is retired, freeing up as much as $5 billion a year for the new endeavor.
NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe, testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, said the exploration goals the president has set for the agency are achievable without major budget increases down the road. Beyond 2010, OKeefe said, NASA intends to seek annual budget increases just big enough keep pace with inflation.
Its not an aggressive schedule, OKeefe said, but one that is very prudently laid out.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, sounded a skeptical note when he said that the only constant in big space exploration initiatives is that the actual costs have always exceeded the initial estimates.
The American public is justifiably apprehensive about starting another major space initiative for fear that they will learn later that it will require far more sacrifice, or taxpayer dollars, than originally discussed or estimated, McCain said.
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) echoed McCains concerns.
I dont want to be a wiseguy, but I must say weve been promised the moon before, Dorgan said. We have the largest deficit in human history. Its a very significant problem.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated on Monday that the federal deficit would exceed $470 billion this year. The deficit would be the largest in history in terms of dollars, but as a percentage of the U.S. economy would be smaller than the deficits the United States ran up in the mid 1980s and early 1990s.
Bush has said his new budget, due out Feb. 2, will cut the deficit in half in five years without raising taxes.
OKeefe said the budget increases targeted for NASA over the next five years are compatible with the presidents broader fiscal agenda.
The program we are engaged in, OKeefe said, is part of the presidents deficit reduction plan."
NASA has been careful to avoid the kind of early, back of the envelope cost projections that swamped the first President Bushs space exploration in the early 1990s.
OKeefe told lawmakers that NASA would take small, incremental steps towards the moon, each one meant to build NASAs confidence in not only the technology needed to get there, but in estimating the probable actual cost of the endeavor.
But he estimated that uncertainty is an unavoidable reality of exploring space.
Its the nature of development programs that cost estimating is extremely vague, OKeefe said.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.), the chairman of the Senate Commerce science, technology and space subcommittee, said he hopes his colleagues wont be put off by the high cost of space exploration.
It is expensive. It does take funds from other areas, he said. But it sows a vision and an excitement throughout the country and the world . . . these are intangibles that are of extraordinary value.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), one of the few lawmakers on record complaining that the Bushs request for NASA is too small, expressed concern that the presidents support of the space program could flag in the face of withering public opinion.
Nelson said he was disappointed that the space vision did not warrant a mention in the State of the Union address the president delivered to Congress Jan. 20.
This program is not going anywhere unless it has the full support of the White House, Nelson said. Why didnt the president mention it . . . in his State of the Union?
OKeefe sought to reassure Nelson that NASA and the new vision has 100 percent backing at the White House and that the proof will be in the presidents forthcoming spending plan.
He also cautioned Nelson from reading too much into the president not mentioning the space vision in his State of the Union address.
The State of the Union Address in not a tick list of things that have been discussed previously, he said, adding There is not a question in my mind that the president is fully behind this.
But Dan Shapiro, Nelsons legislative director, is not so sure.
When this president or any president for that matter is really committed to a proposal of any kind they tend to talk about it in public, Shapiro said. A lot."
After unveiling a $250 million worker training program in his State of the Union address, Bush traveled to a community college near Toledo, Ohio the next day to promote his proposal. Bush talked about the proposal again in a speech he gave Jan. 23 to the U.S. Conference of Mayors here.
Bush has made no public statements about his space initiative since his Jan. 14 speech at NASA headquarters here.
Shapiro said the presidents continued leadership is crucial, especially in a year when lawmakers are expected to have to make tough budget choices. Its a signal to Congress, a signal to the bureaucracy and, more importantly, its a driver of public opinion, he said.
advertisement
