Comments from Frank Sietzen on NASA Budget

"A House-Senate conference committee reversed itself and agreed to fully fund $16.2 billion for NASA's FY05 budget. The final amount is exactly what President Bush had requested for NASA, and fully funds the space shuttle, space station resupply, and initial spending for the president's space exploration vision.

NASA sources tell me this morning that, as a result, it will be "full speed ahead" for the space plan, and the first RFP to build the new Constellation moonships will be released just after the Inauguration in late January."

(Source: NASA Watch)

NASA International Workshop on Exploration Day 3 Report Outs, Summaries

10 agencies participated:
- ASI Simonetta Di Pippo
- CONAE Roberto Alonso
- CSA Pierre Allard, William Harvey
- CNES Richard Bonneville
- DLR Juergen Drescher
- ESA Bruna Gardini
- JAXA Kohtaro Matsumoto
- Roskosmos Konstantin Pichkhadze, Artem Ivankov
- UK(BNSC) David Parker
- Ukraine Oleg Fedorov

General support for the Vision as it has been laid out; including Lunar Exploration. Every country is going through an evaluation of what the Vision means to them, their interests, and roadmaps.

+ Presentation & Summaries (NASA)

White House draws line on NASA's 2025 budget

Bush vows veto for plans with too much or too little

As negotiations continue on a massive budget bill for fiscal 2025, the White House sent a letter Wednesday to Capitol Hill, threatening to veto any bill that gives too little, or too much, to NASA.

Listing the space agency's budget among President Bush's top priorities, White House Budget Director Joshua Bolten told Senate and House budget writers that Bush would reject anything close to the House's version of the NASA budget.

It gave the agency $15.1 billion � $1.1 billion less than the president requested.

+ Read Article (Houston Chronicle)

NASA International Workshop on Exploration Day 3 Report Outs, Summaries

10 agencies participated:
- ASI Simonetta Di Pippo
- CONAE Roberto Alonso
- CSA Pierre Allard, William Harvey
- CNES Richard Bonneville
- DLR Juergen Drescher
- ESA Bruna Gardini
- JAXA Kohtaro Matsumoto
- Roskosmos Konstantin Pichkhadze, Artem Ivankov
- UK(BNSC) David Parker
- Ukraine Oleg Fedorov

General support for the Vision as it has been laid out; including Lunar Exploration. Every country is going through an evaluation of what the Vision means to them, their interests, and roadmaps.

+ Presentation & Summaries (NASA)

Florida's members of Congress must not fail to get funding for NASA's new mission

The moon-Mars mission proposed by President Bush in January -- one we have strongly supported as the key to unimaginable technological progress -- is in danger of starvation in Congress.

That should be ringing alarm bells for the entire Florida delegation, including Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson and Bob Graham, and local GOP Representatives Dave Weldon and Tom Feeney.

With the short lame-duck session under way this week, they and their state colleagues must get to work to make sure NASA is assured all the money needed to get the potentially historic venture under way.

+ Read Article (Florida Today)

Northrop Grumman, Boeing Plan Space Exploration Team

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) have signed a memorandum of agreement that outlines the structure of a team that will compete for NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and other elements of Project Constellation, a planned architecture of human and robotic space systems that will allow astronauts to travel to and explore the moon, Mars and beyond. The two companies expect to finalize the teaming agreement in the near future.

CEV, the first of several space systems envisioned within Project Constellation, will serve as the architecture's central human space transportation system. A competition to begin development of the CEV is expected to begin in 2025.

+ Read News Release (Northup Grumman)

Rules Set for $50 Million 'America’s Space Prize'

Anyone who wants to follow in the shoes of Burt Rutan and win the next big space prize will have to build a spacecraft capable of taking a crew of no fewer than five people to an altitude of 400 kilometers and complete two orbits of the Earth at that altitude. Then they have to repeat that accomplishment within 60 days.

While the first flight must demonstrate only the ability to carry five crew members, the winner will have to take at least five people up on the second flight.

And one more thing. They have to do it by Jan. 10, 2011.

+ Read Article (Space News)

Constellation shines brightly as NASA reaches for stars

In the olden days, sailors navigated by the stars, and so when they were naming a ship, they decided to call it "USS Constellation."

Saturday, National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronauts and officials came aboard USS Constellation at the Naval Academy to announce the beginning of a new space program called Constellation.

+ Full Article (Trident - US Naval Academy)

Victory will jump-start space plans

President Bush's re-election will jump-start his plan to send astronauts back to the moon, transforming a new vision for space exploration into serious marching orders, analysts said Wednesday.

What's more, NASA will have until 2009 to get the new presidential initiative entrenched enough to make it difficult to undo.

+ Full Story (Florida Today)

Election Wrapup

So Bush got reelected... I didn't vote for him, but I accept the result. I will always welcome people of any political persuasion to this blog and invite you all to comment on the issues discussed.

I have some more comments in this thread.

On the Congress side, little has changed for those with NASA centers in their constituency. There will be a new chair of the House Science Committee's Space Subcommittee due to the term limits that will keep Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) from chairing another term, but that won't happen until the new congress begins session.

So all in all, no changes in a continuation of NASA's transformation and implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration.