In any case it’s a slam dunk for the Planetary Society, which previous work set the scene for this affordable and achievable strategy. The space community got their wishes granted, as I understand the Augustin Commission work. Increase funding to detect asteroids that could potentially pose a hazard to the Earth.įirst, it seems to adopt Flexible Path, which means synergy in looking for NEO hazards and exploration. $14 million ($420 million over five years) for a mission to the Sun, flying through its outer atmosphere to better understand how it is heated and how it ejects the stream of charged particles known as the solar wind. $3.2 billion for science research grants and dozens of missions and telescopes studying the planets and stars – including new missions such as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, missions to study the Moon, and two Mars exploration missions. Increases Scientific Understanding of the Solar System and Universe $500 million to contract with industry to provide astronaut transportation to the ISS, reducing the sole reliance on foreign crew transports and catalyzing new businesses and significant new jobs. $170 million to develop and fly a replacement of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a mission to identify global carbon sources and sinks that was lost when its launch vehicle failed in 2009. $150 million to accelerate the development of new satellites for Earth Science priorities. $1.2 billion for transformative research in exploration technology that will involve NASA, private industry, and academia, sparking spin-off technologies and potentially entire new industries. $600 million to complete the final five shuttle missions, allowing for a safe and orderly retirement of the Space Shuttle program even if its schedule slips into Fiscal Year 2011. New capabilities could include a centrifuge to support research into human physiology, inflatable space habitats, and a program to continuously upgrade Space Station capabilities. NASA will deploy new research facilities to conduct scientific research and test technologies in space. $183 million to extend operations of the ISS past its previously planned retirement date of 2016. So, giving NASA the $6 billion over the next five year is a way to circumvent that freeze for NASA. With the US facing a federal deficit of $1.26 trillion in 2011, Obama federal budget proposal puts a three-year freeze on most non-defense discretionary spending after 2011, which the president believes will save $250 billion over the next 10 years. “I, for one, intend to stand up and fight for NASA, and for the thousands of people who stand to lose their jobs,” said Senator Bill Nelson last week, as rumors were flying and details about the budget were leaking out. It is true that the Constellation program was “over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies.” But $9 billion has already been spent on developing the Ares rockets and the Orion crew capsule, and $2.5 billion is in the budget proposal to close out Constellation.Īlready, some say they will fight this budget. Commercial space companies could likely provide the seats for less money, but their vehicles are not yet human rated or tested. With the space shuttle program ending this year, NASA had agreed to pay Russia $50 million a seat. In this budget, the Ares rocket is history, and while no decision has been made on a heavy lift vehicle – necessary to launch humans beyond low-Earth orbit – NASA has been directed to continue research on such a vehicle that will “increase the capability of future exploration architectures with significantly lower operations costs than current systems – potentially taking us farther and faster into space.”īut in this proposed budget, which must be approved by Congress, NASA will provide funds for commercial space companies to build vehicles to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS. With an extension to the International Space Station to 2020, humans may well be stuck in low Earth orbit for at least another decade. So, while some see this new direction as a course correction others see it as an endgame. The budget information released so far does not provide for a specific destination for humans in space. NASA will get additional $6 billion over the next five years tacked on to the current budget of just under $18 billion. But have we gained the solar system while boosting commercial space ventures? “The President’s Budget cancels Constellation and replaces it with a bold new approach that invests in the building blocks of a more capable approach to space exploration,” states the Office of Management and Budget’s Fact Sheet on NASA’s 2011 budget.
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