By Emelie Rutherford
The Senate considered a NASA spending bill Oct. 5 with more exploration monies than a House version that would delay funding until a blue-ribbon panel offers manned-spaceflight options to the White House.
That panel, led by retired Lockheed Martin [LMT] CEO Norm Augustine, meanwhile is preparing to hold a previously unexpected hearing this Thursday to help it finalize its report on the cash-strapped space agency’s future.
The Senate began debating last night a fiscal year 2010 Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill. It calls for giving NASA $3.94 billion, nearly what the White House requested, for exploration efforts including the Constellation program, which has a crew capsule and rocket under development.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee, touted Constellation on the Senate floor. He said he was concerned some of the Augustine panel’s options for the Obama administration could cede U.S. dominance in space to other countries.
“NASA and this administration should never forget that the support of Congress will still be necessary to authorize and provide funds as we move forward,” Shelby said. “I will not support any future NASA budget request that does not have a robust human exploration program. It must be a program that inspires yet is also a program grounded in what is possible and not wishful thinking.”
The administration requested $3.96 billion for space exploration, and its Office of Management and Budget (OMB) objected to a cut of $670 million in the NASA appropriations bill the House passed in June.
The OMB, though, was more favorable of the pending Senate legislation in a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) issued yesterday. For the space agency, the OMB cites just one concern with the Senate bill: an $18.7 million reduction to the administration’s request for “NASA innovation” programs that use public-private partnerships.
“The Administration appreciates the (Senate Appropriations) Committee’s support for the President’s FY 2010 request for NASA, including full funding for Science, Aeronautics, Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Exploration Systems, and in the existing budget structure as proposed,” OMB’s statement says.
By contrast, the $670 million reduction in the House-passed appropriations bill, the OMB says in a SAP issued in June, “would likely cause major negative impacts to any options that may emerge from the ongoing blue ribbon review of U.S. human space flight plans.”
The House’s $670 million reduction–$586 million of which comes out of Constellation–is not permanent and is pending the Augustine panel’s review, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) says in a report on the legislation.
“In light of this ongoing review, and pending the recommendations of the panel and a determination by the Administration on the way forward, the Committee recommends deferring an increase from the fiscal year 2009 enacted level,” the HAC report says. “This deferral is taken without prejudice to the existing architecture.”
After the Senate passes its Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill, House and Senate lawmakers will reconcile their two bills and send a final version to President Obama.
Augustine’s panel, the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, released a draft of its final report on Sept. 8. Yet it announced last Friday another public hearing will be held this Thursday, via teleconference, to help it finalize the scoring of options in the draft report.
The final report is expected to be released mid-October, panel spokesman Doc Mirelson said yesterday.
When the Constellation program began earlier this decade it was intended to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. It includes the Ares I launch vehicle–being built by firms including ATK [ATK] and Boeing [BA]–along with Lockheed Martin’s developmental Orion capsule and the longer-term Ares V heavy-lift rocket and Altair lunar lander.
The five options in the Augustine committee’s summary report include two profiles that would keep variations of the present Constellation program and Ares I rocket–either under the current tight budget or with increased funding. The three other options would need a $3 billion annual funding boost. Proposed Ares alternatives include commercial launch services that would carry crew to low-earth orbit, and heavy-lifter launchers that would be derived from the retiring space shuttle or be commercial variations of the Pentagon’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV).
NASA supporters in the House and Senate have decried the White House’s underfunding of Constellation. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a report released two weeks ago says Constellation has had a “a poorly phased funding plan that runs the risk of funding shortfalls in fiscal years 2009 through 2012, resulting in planned work not being completed to support schedules and milestones.” The GAO says this “approach has limited NASA’s ability to mitigate technical risks early in development and precludes the orderly ramp up of workforce and developmental activities.”