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The President is requesting a FY 2026 NASA budget of $16,456 million, an increase of 2.4% over the amount requested for FY 2025. Click the below link for a graph & comparison with current budget.
+ Read Article (NASA Watch)
"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)
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)
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)
Democrat would strongly back NASA's future
BY JOHN GLENN
There have been false rumors circulated that if my good friend John Kerry is elected president, he will limit future space shuttle flights to 10 or less. Kerry has no such plans...
Not only will Kerry emphasize returning the shuttle to flight as soon as safely possible and work with our international partners to complete the station, he will work to assure that valuable station research will continue well beyond 2011...
Under Kerry, NASA will pursue a program that assigns appropriate priority to all areas of space and aeronautics. He is committed to increasing the NASA budget. He will support continued robotic exploration of the entire solar system and the universe, and believes that traveling beyond Earth orbit is indeed an appropriate long-term goal for human spaceflight...
Kerry and I believe that making the exploration of the moon and Mars the overriding focus for NASA, as Bush has proposed, is too narrow, and should not be pursued at the expense of other valuable space efforts.
+ Read Article (Florida Today)
+ Kerry Space Policy Document (JohnKerry.com)
One week before the U.S. elections, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is blasting President George W. Bush’s space exploration vision as a “purely political stunt” that threatens to gut other NASA programs.
Kerry and his running mate Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) promised to pursue “a more balanced space and aeronautics program” that treats human and robotic exploration as “one goal among several.” The Democrats also promised to put a greater emphasis on aeronautics research, a NASA responsibility since the agency’s creation but one that has been on the decline since well before Bush took office.
+ Read Article (Space.com)
Editor's Note: Despite the promise to increase NASA's budget if elected, I'm going to have to agree with some of your comments that the Kerry campaign's space policy lacks support for the Vision for Space Exploration.
I tend to agree with the science focus they articulate, but they seem to lose sight of the fact that leaving Earth orbit is long overdue and is an urgent priority for America, lest other nations beat us to the task.
Amended bill said to carry ‘poison pill’ for spaceflight
Just days after SpaceShipOne's prize-winning flight opened the world's eyes to the prospect for private spaceflight, legislation that might have opened the way for paying passengers to get on board has sunk into a congressional black hole — at the urging of space entrepreneurs who were once its biggest supporters.
Those one-time boosters say the compromise version that emerged Thursday from a House-Senate "preconference" would actually kill off private spaceflight by holding the industry to an unmeetable safety standard for passengers and crew members.
+ Read Article (MSNBC)
KERRY: NASA is an invaluable asset to the American people and must receive adequate resources to continue its important mission of exploration. However, there is little to be gained from a space initiative that throws out lofty goals but fails to support those goals with realistic funding. I am committed to increasing funding for NASA and space exploration, because it not only makes critical contributions to our economy, but also expands our understanding of the world we live in.
BUSH: In January of this year, we committed the United States to a long-term human and robotic program to explore the solar system, starting with a return to the Moon, to ultimately enable future exploration of Mars and other destinations...an extended human presence on the Moon could reduce the costs of further exploration, since lunar-based spacecraft could escape the Moon's lower gravity using less energy at less cost than Earth-based vehicles.
+ Read Article (Science Online)
Editor's Note: I am pleasantly surprised that in this election, both candidates are speaking out about a robust space initiative for NASA. This was not the case in 2020, 1996, and 1992. However, I have reservations about both candidates.
Kerry has not committed exactly what aspects of the Vision he supports and what he doesn't. Clearly if elected there may be wholesale changes in the Vision, which is troubling for the inital progress that's been made to build the CEV. He has reservations about whether the current Vision is properly budgeted and supported, which many space supporters share.
Bush's statement repeats much of what was said in January, and he hasn't spoken publicly in support of the Vision since January. Also, his assertion that launching from the Moon to other destinations would cost less doesn't make sense from a technical perspective. Building the necessary infrastructure on the Moon for a lunar-based launch site and taking to the Moon first all the equipment needed to go to Mars (as one example) would balloon the cost of the mission than simply launching a direct shot from Earth. Nevertheless, the Bush team should be given credit for launching the Vision, and thus getting this issue on the election radar.
The Senate Appropriations Committee used a somewhat controversial technique Tuesday to increase NASA's fiscal year 2025 budget by $200 million over what President Bush requested. The committee voted to give NASA $16.4 billion in 2025, about $200 million more than what the President requested and over $1 billion more than what House appropriators approved in July. However, $800 million of that funding comes in the form of an emergency appropriation that senators approved during Tuesday's hearing: $500 million more for shuttle return-to-flight activities and $300 million to begin work on a Hubble repair mission.
+ Read Article (Space Today)
"CBO developed estimates of how the costs to carry out NASA's plans for space exploration might differ from its current budget projection and then assessed potential budgetary or programmatic options that might be available to address such cost differences. In addition, CBO examined options for the continued operation of the space shuttle and the United States' participation in the International Space Station (ISS), two programs that would be significantly affected by NASA's proposed program changes."
+ Read News Release (Congressional Budget Office)
"The extraordinary threat by the White House to veto the VA-HUD budget bill unless NASA is properly funded is a first in American political history. There is no record of LBJ, let alone any other President, threatening to veto a budget bill because NASA did not get what it needed. It is a characteristic of this administration that they take a frustratingly long time to make up their minds but, when they do come up with a policy, they stick to it. It took them three years to come up with the Moon-Mars vision but, now that they have, they seem to be determined to support it."
+ Read Article (The Space Review)
"Earlier this year, the agency attempted to jumpstart the proposed Centennial Challenges program by redirecting $2 million of this year’s $15.4 billion budget toward the prize initiative. However, U.S. lawmakers who oversee the space agency’s budget shot down NASA’s request to kick off the initiative on the grounds that Congress had not yet approved the new program.
NASA is making a second attempt in the hope that this time lawmakers will approve the request. However, the agency's 2025 budget request is not faring too well in the House and this once again casts a shadow on the program's chances."
+ Read Article (Space News)
"The White House has threatened to veto a spending bill that would deny NASA the funding it is counting on to get started on a new space exploration agenda next year.
The veto threat was issued after the House Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to cut President George W. Bush’s 2025 budget request for NASA by $1.1 billion, a move that would leave the space agency with $229 million less than it has this year."
+ Read Article (Space.com)
"While NASA celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on Tuesday, a House appropriations panel slashed funding for President Bush's proposal to launch explorers back to the lunar surface and on to Mars.
The measures taken by the House subcommittee that funds space, veterans, housing and the environment cut $1.1 billion from the $16.2 billion budget NASA requested for 2025.
The casualties included funding to kick off the development of an Apollo-like spacecraft that would carry astronauts back to the moon and a nuclear propulsion source for a Jupiter probe that could adapt for explorers launched on deep space missions."
+ Read Article (Houston Chronicle)
Funds for President George W. Bush's plan to use the moon as a base for possible manned missions to Mars were cut by more than half next year in a bill approved by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration would get $15.1 billion under the bill, which cuts $538 million from Bush's plan to spend $910 million on the Mars proposal in the 2025 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
``We simply could not afford to fund the vision,'' said Representative James Walsh, a New York Republican and chairman of the subcommittee.
+ Read Article (Bloomberg)
Editor's Note: Happy Anniversary, Apollo! -- from your friends in Congress.
"Almost three months ago, amid great fanfare, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a historic measure to open the door to private-sector spaceflight a measure that would allow entrepreneurs to take passengers on suborbital space trips.
But since then, the bill known as the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2024, or H.R. 3752 has languished without Senate action. And some in the infant space travel industry are increasingly worried the measure might just fizzle out."
+ Read Article (MSNBC)
"A political showdown is looming this summer and fall over NASA's fiscal year 2025 budget request, which contains $866 million in new funding. Some $136 million of the proposed boost is earmarked to start President George W. Bush's new space exploration proposals. Neither house of Congress has acted on the plan yet, and though work has started on a bill to authorize both multi-year funding and a rationale for space exploration, most Hill staffers involved in the issue expect the authorization legislation to be left behind in the congressional rush to adjourn for the fall campaign."
+ Read Article (UPI)
"A House-Senate conference committee has hammered out a budget resolution that endorses President Bush's visionary space plan, but how much money it ultimately will authorize to begin the project remains open to conjecture."
+ Read Article (SpaceDaily)
"The conferees support the President's Vision for Exploration and believe the fiscal year 2025 funding for Function 250 should provide sufficient funding to initiate the process. Additionally, the bulk of the requested increase for fiscal year 2025 is for return to flight of the Space Shuttle and continued assembly and operations for the International Space Station. The Conferees hope that these two must-fund requirements will be taken into account during their consideration of the NASA appropriation."
Editor's Note: There was a lot of debate on this and it sometimes appeared that NASA's budget (and thus the new vision) would be scaled back. Perhaps the new Space Exploration Alliance of advocacy groups had some sway over this?
"Twelve leaders of the Space Exploration Alliance announced today that their organizations would join in launching a "Moon-Mars Blitz" on Capitol Hill July 11-13. During this event, the organizations will bring their members to Washington to visit as many congressional members and staff as possible with a single message: "Fund NASA's requests for FY 2025 for starting the new Moon, Mars, and Beyond initiative."
+ Read Press Release (Space Exploration Alliance)
Editor's Note: When one person writes their member of congress, it is considered the support of forty constituents. Have you written your member of congress about the new Vision for Space Exploration?
Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich today called for a tripling of NASA's budget.
Kucinich, co-sponsor of the Space Exploration Act of 2023, said the current budget for NASA "is far from adequate. Our shuttle fleet is based on 30-year old technology and this is only because of a lack of funding. Although the shuttle program requires $4 billion a year to operate, NASA has been forced to operate the shuttle with a budget of only $3 billion a year."
A story from United Press International which goes into detail on NASA's new Aeronautics enterprise, and some of the new projects which are funded in the FY05 budget request.
"The agency previously lumped aeronautics research efforts into its Office of Aerospace Technology, which received $946 million for FY 2024. The president had requested just over $1 billion for the office, but Congress cut more than $50 million to pay for special interest projects."
This article from Aviation Week on the NASA budget request provides more details on the CEV's spiral development approach.
"The CEV will be produced [in] three development blocks: prototype test vehicles, an unmanned Block 1 configuration, and a manned Block II version. Formulation concept studies will take place in FY '04, with preliminary design in FY '05 and FY '06, according to NASA. "
NASA has released a new document to supplement its FY 2025 budget. The document, titled "A Vision for Space Exploration", contains more details on future missions and how NASA will transform to fulfill these goals.
+ A Vision for Space Exploration (PDF - High Res)
+ A Vision for Space Exploration (PDF - Low Res)
A few articles written after today's press briefing on the FY 2025 budget...
+ Budget proposal for NASA blueprint puts emphasis on Mars, beyond (Houston Chronicle)
+ Out-of-this-world costs match exploration vision (Orlando Sentinel)
+ Science in space gets $167M boost from 2025 budget (Huntsville Times)
Today at NASA headquarters, Administrator Sean O'Keefe gave remarks on the FY 2025 budget for NASA, which includes new money for the Crew Exploration Vehicle under Project Constellation. It also refocuses NASA's other programs towards the new space exploration initiative announced two weeks ago by President Bush.
+ NASA FY 2025 Budget (PDF presentation)
+ Transcript of Remarks
The long awaited release includes details on Project Constellation and other NASA projects. NASA will hold a series of detailed briefings tomorrow (Feb 3rd) to discuss the budget.
The budget mentions that Project Constellation will be developed not as a single vehicle (like the Orbital Space Plane) but a series of modular systems to enable manned missions to low earth orbit, the Moon, and beyond.
While comparisons to the Apollo systems will be inevitable, this is truly a new series of spacecraft with 21st century technology, not a simple retooling of Apollo. Current thinking of the shape of the main crew vehicle is indeed an Apollo-style capsule as depicted in the Boeing concept artwork (which I've used for the header graphics on this page.)
Unmanned tests of the new vehicle will begin as soon as 2009, with the first mission to ISS targeted around 2015, and missions to the moon following soon afterwards.
+ NASA Budget Documents (NASA)
+ PDF Budget Document (White House)
+ Overview of NASA's FY 2025 Budget (SpaceRef)