Highlights
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) received a large budget
increase in the final 2008 appropriation, but the entire increase would go to
human spacecraft, including the International Space Station and the project to
develop the Space Shuttle’s replacement. The total NASA budget for 2008 is $17.1
billion, an increase of $850 million or 5.2 percent (see Table).
NASA R&D spending, which excludes the Space Shuttle, would total $12.5
billion, an increase of 5.7 percent or $670 million (see Table) but the
entire increase and more would go to development and R&D facilities spending
for the two human space flight projects, leaving NASA basic and applied research
in decline despite congressional attempts to shift funds from human space
flight to space science, aeronautics, and earmarks.
- The Constellation Systems program to develop
the new Crew Exploration Vehicle and Crew Launch Vehicle would receive $3.0 billion,
a 6.2 percent increase. Construction of the International Space Station would
receive the $2.2 billion in 2008, up $450 million or a staggering 26 percent over
2007.
- Hundreds of millions of dollars
that Congress had been counting on to shore up NASA’s research funding evaporated
in last-minute negotiations over the 2008 omnibus appropriations bill, leaving
NASA support of basic and applied research at an estimated $3.4 billion, slightly
below (0.2 percent) last year. Although earlier appropriations
would have boosted the Earth Science portfolio by 10 percent or more, the final
$1.5 billion would be a 4.4 percent increase. Total Science funding would
reach $5.5 billion, a 1.8 percent increase that falls short of the request.
- Congress shifted money from Science to shore
up the shrinking Aeronautics portfolio (down 11 percent to $616 million instead
of an even steeper requested cut) and to add $83 million in congressional earmarks.
NASA R&D
in FY 2008 Final Appropriations
On December 26, President Bush signed into law
the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill (HR 2764) that had cleared Congress a
week earlier, bringing the 2008 appropriations process to a close. The omnibus
bill included a final version of the FY 2008 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations
bill that was billions of dollars less than earlier House or Senate versions of
the bill providing funding for the National Science Foundation
(NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department
of Commerce. As a result, the final 2008 NASA budget falls short of the budget
request by $193 million for a total of $17.1 billion, an increase of $850 million
or 5.2 percent over 2007. Although this would be a large increase in a generally
tough budget environment for domestic programs, the 2008 appropriation
would still leave NASA well short of 2005 and 2006 levels after a sharp
cut in 2007 (see Table).
NASA’s R&D funding would increase $670 million
or 5.7 percent to $12.5 billion in 2008 (see Table), continuing a rebound
from a dismal 2005 when Shuttle cost overruns forced the agency to siphon money
from R&D programs to the non-R&D Shuttle and narrowly reaching a high
point for this decade (see Figure 1). Efforts to develop next-generation human
space vehicles to replace the Shuttle and ramped-up construction of the International
Space Station (ISS) would take up the entire 2008 increase, leaving all other
NASA R&D programs in decline. NASA support of basic and applied research would
fall to $3.4 billion (down 0.2 percent).
NASA’s Constellation Systems program aims to develop
a new Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Ares 1 Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV)
to replace the Space Shuttle as the primary means of getting humans into space.
This large program to fund development of the CEV, CLV, and related technologies
is part of the President’s Vision for Space Exploration, announced in 2004, to
get humans back to the moon and onward to Mars. Funding quadrupled from just $422
million in 2005 to $1.7 billion in 2006, and increased again to $2.8 billion in
2007 (see Figure 1). The 2008 omnibus bill would fall short of the request, but
would still boost funding 6.2 percent to $3.0 billion (see Table). Although the
goal is to have the new vehicles ready by 2014, a nearly half-billion dollar shortfall
in the final 2007 appropriation compared to the request and project delays have
caused NASA to push back the projected launch date to 2015 or later.
The International Space Station (ISS) budget climbs
26 percent or $450 million to $2.2 billion, slightly less than the request, partly
because of a transfer of support costs from Constellation Systems to the ISS account
and partly for a ramped-up construction schedule in 2008 aiming for final assembly
of the Station in 2010, followed by full operations through 2016.
Figure 1. (click on the image for PDF)
The 2008 appropriation contains $837 million in
increases to the ISS project (along with ISS support costs) and the Constellation
Systems project, more than the net $670 million in increases for NASA R&D.
Funding for the rest of the NASA R&D portfolio would decline in 2008
(see Figure 1), especially NASA’s support of basic and applied research. Hundreds
of millions of dollars that Congress had been counting on to shore up NASA’s research
funding evaporated in last-minute negotiations over the 2008 omnibus appropriations
bill. Ironically, NASA is a large supporter of physical sciences research but
was left out of the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) to boost
basic physical sciences research, and its support for physical sciences research
and other research would fall in 2008 to an estimated $3.4 billion for all NASA
research (down 0.2 percent).
Although earlier appropriations would have boosted
the Earth Science portfolio by 10 percent or more, the final $1.5 billion would
be a 4.4 percent increase. Congress tried to use Earth Science funding to implement
recommendations of the National Research Council’s (NRC) recent Earth Science
and Applications From Space: National Imperatives for
the Next Decade and Beyond report. This decadal survey of earth science expresses concern that
the number of earth-observing sensors on NASA spacecraft could decrease by 40
percent during this decade if current trends continue, such as a 30 percent real
decline in earth science funding so far this decade. The report notes that NASA’s
satellite capabilities for observing the Earth from space are vital for environmental
research, especially for understanding climate change, and would be nearly impossible
to replace. The House and the Senate in earlier appropriations tried to
add funding to various earth science programs, including several earth observing
satellite missions, and provided funding specifically to top up funding for Earth
Science Applications, a program that provides competitive grants for scientists
to use satellite data for environmental and other research. But most of these
additional funds evaporated in the last-minute negotiations over the omnibus bill
and the final appropriation sets aside just $40 million specifically to implement
the NRC report’s recommendations, $15 million more than the request for Earth
Science Applications, and $24 million more than the request for Science-wide Research
and Analysis efforts. Congress agreed to fund the full request of $90 million
for the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission, which will collect better data
on hurricanes, among other weather phenomena. But all of these have to fit into
a total Earth Science appropriation just $10 million more than the 2008 request,
so the future of NASA earth-observing satellites and research remains uncertain.
In the rest of the Science portfolio, Congress
adds $38 million to the request in Astrophysics specifically for the Space Interferometry
Mission for a total of $60 million, and $5 million to the Planetary Science portfolio
for an outer-planets mission. All told, the Science portfolio gains a slight
1.8 percent or $97 million to $5.5 billion (see Table). The appropriation
would allow work on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)
project to restart in 2008 after an abrupt halt in 2007, would allow the James
Webb Space Telescope to ramp up development efforts to $545 million toward a 2013
launch, and would fund a 2008 servicing mission for the current Hubble Space Telescope
($280 million). Congress also boosts funding for the Space Interferometry Mission
(SIM) to $60 million, $38 million more than the request. The omnibus bill sets
Mars Exploration funding at the requested $626 million, a decision made before
NASA’s recent announcement that the Mars Scout mission would miss the 2011 Mars
launch window (every 26 months) because of project delays. NASA will have trouble
fitting all of these congressional allocations into the Science portfolio, which
would fall $31 million short of the request.
Outside the Science portfolio in other NASA research
programs, Congress adds $62 million to the aeronautics research portfolio, enough
to turn a steep requested cut into a smaller but still substantial 11 percent
cut to $616 million. Aeronautics research funding would have tumbled 21 percent
in the request following similar cuts in previous years; in real terms, the aeronautics
research portfolio would be half its size of just four years ago (see Figure 1),
and in the report accompanying the omnibus bill Congress criticizes NASA for threatening
U.S. preeminence in aviation and aerospace with its budget cuts. Elsewhere in
the omnibus bill, there would be $83 million allocated to congressionally designated,
performer-specific projects (earmarks), a return to earmarking in 2008 after a
one-year moratorium in 2007. Congress would fund NASA’s Education program at $173
million, down from last year but $20 million more than requested, including $8.5
million in new funding for a competitive program to educate students on global
climate change and additional funding for several NASA competitive education grants
programs.
Impacts of the NASA Budget
The increase to NASA’s R&D portfolio in FY
2008 would continue a modest upward trend for the last few years after hitting
bottom in 2005, as shown in Figure 1. The 2008 increase brings NASA R&D
back above $12 billion in today’s dollars for the first time since 1995. Although
the Bush Administration’s moon and Mars plan ignited hopes of increasing resources
in a time of fiscal austerity, NASA committed to carrying out its ambitious plans
with a budget plan that would just keep pace with expected inflation over the
next decade. Although inflationary increases are more than most R&D funding
agencies are likely to get in the next few years, NASA’s big plans for the next
few years will require NASA to reshuffle its resources and to meet ambitious targets
for deployment, construction, and then phase-out of the Space Shuttle and Space
Station programs to make room for moon and Mars programs.
Because recent increases in NASA R&D have gone
to development programs such as the Constellation Systems project and facilities
such as the International Space Station (see Figure 1), NASA support of research
has plummeted in real terms. The 2008 omnibus appropriation slows but does not
reverse the slide.
Outlook and Next Steps
The 2008 NASA budget is now law, and NASA will
shortly announce how it plans to apportion its funding among its many missions
and programs. The President’s FY 2009 budget request due in early February is
expected to be another rough one for NASA’s research-oriented programs because
of the looming deadline for finishing the Space Station and milestones associated
with Constellation Systems, within an overall budget request that is likely to
call for another cut in total domestic spending.
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January 4, 2008
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Avenue,
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Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
AAAS R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
