Highlights
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Frustrated with tough budget choices at he National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), the House would add to an already large requested increase for 2008,
for a total NASA budget of $17.6 billion, up 8.3 percent or $1.4 billion (see
Table). The House would add funds for the Science
portfolio, particularly for earth observing satellites, and for aeronautics.
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The Constellation Systems program to develop the new Crew Exploration Vehicle
and Crew Launch Vehicle would increase 10.2 percent from 2007 to $3.1 billion
in 2008 in the request, House, and Senate plans. Funding shortfalls in 2007 and
project delays recently led NASA to push back the launch date from 2014 to 2015
at the earliest. Construction of the International
Space Station, now in full gear with the return of the Space Shuttle to flight,
would receive the requested $2.2 billion next year in the House, up $483 million
from this year.
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The House would boost NASA’s Science portfolio 5.7 percent over the current
year for a total of $5.7 billion. The aeronautics program would receive $700 million,
$146 million more than a steep requested cut to keep the portfolio flat with 2007.
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NASA’s R&D portfolio would receive $13.0 billion in the House, a large increase
of $1.2 billion or 9.8 percent that would allow NASA’s non-human space flight
R&D to stay ahead of inflation for the first time in five years.
NASA R&D in FY 2008 House Appropriations
On
July 12, the House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 2008
Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill (HR 3093) providing funding for the
National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of Commerce.
The full House is expected to debate and approve the bill by the end of July.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has already drafted its own version (S 1745).
The House bill contains nearly $54 billion in
2008 discretionary spending for its programs, $3.2 billion more than the current
year and $2.3 billion more than the President’s request.
The
House would add $313 million to NASA’s 2008 request, primarily for earth science
and aeronautics programs, for a total NASA budget of $17.6 billion, $1.4 billion
or 8.3 percent more than the current year. Although a large increase, the House
would only bring NASA funding back to 2005 and 2006 levels after a sharp cut in
2007 (see Table). Earlier, the Senate drafted a NASA
appropriation giving the agency slightly less, $17.5 billion. Both would add funds
to NASA’s research programs on top of the large requests for development and facilities
requested by the Bush Administration, and in the House case the appropriation
would allow NASA’s non-human space flight programs to stay ahead of inflation
for the first time since 2003 (see Figure 1). (For details of NASA’s FY 2008 request,
see the March 21 AAAS R&D Funding Update or Chapter
9 of AAAS Report XXXII: R&D FY 2008.
For details of Senate appropriations for NASA, see the July
5 R&D Funding Update.)
NASA’s
R&D funding would climb $1.2 billion or 9.8 percent to $13.0 billion in
the House plan (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. 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 most of the large R&D increase, but the House would add just
enough money to Science and aeronautics programs to leave all other NASA R&D
programs combined with more money in real terms.
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 last
year, and increased again to $2.8 billion in 2007. The 2008 House plan would go
along with the request to further boost funding 10.2 percent or $285 million to
$3.1 billion. Although the goal is to have the new vehicles ready by 2014, a nearly
half-billion dollar shortfall in the final 2007 appropriation from the 2007 request
and project delays have caused NASA to push back the projected launch date to
2015 or later. The Senate would provide slightly more for the program.
The
International Space Station (ISS) budget would climb 28 percent or $483 million,
slightly less than the request, to $2.2 billion in the 2008 House appropriation,
partly because of a transfer of support costs from Constellation Systems to the
ISS account and partly for a ramped-up construction schedule aiming for final
assembly of the Station in 2010, followed by full operations through 2016.
Figure
1. (click on the image for PDF)
Together,
increases for the two human space-flight programs of Constellation Systems and
the ISS are responsible for most of the 9.8 percent increase in NASA R&D in
2008 in the House (see Figure 1), but the House would add enough funding to Science
programs, especially in earth science, and to aeronautics to allow all other NASA
R&D programs combined to see a real increase in 2008 following steep cuts
in each of the last four years (see Figure 1). 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 the 2008 request,
and just stay even with inflation in the 2008 Senate appropriation. The House
would be the only plan to allow funding to stay ahead of inflation.
Both
the House and the Senate would shore up NASA support of the earth sciences
with $1.6 billion for the Earth Science portfolio, in the House 9.3 percent more
than the current year. In the Senate, $25 million in new funding would go to implement
recommendations of the National Research Council’s 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 Senate would add funding to various earth science programs,
including several earth observing satellite missions, and would provide $15 million
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. The House would add $60 million to the request for earth science
satellite missions, and add another $60 million for research and analysis for
the entire Science portfolio, part of which would support increased use and analysis
of earth observing satellite data.
In
the rest of the Science portfolio, the House would add $50 million to the request
in Astrophysics specifically for the Space Interferometry Mission for a total
of $72 million, and $10 million to the Planetary Science portfolio for an outer-planets
mission. All told, the Science portfolio would gain 5.7 percent or $308 million
to reach $5.7 billion in the House. 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 ($278 million).
Outside
the Science portfolio in other NASA research programs, the House would also add
$146 million to the aeronautics research portfolio, enough to turn a steep requested
cut into a slight increase. Aeronautics research funding would tumble 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),
but the House appropriation would reverse these recent trends, and the report
accompanying appropriation criticizes NASA for threatening U.S. preeminence in
aviation and aerospace with its budget cuts. Elsewhere in the House bill, there
would be $19 million allocated to congressionally designated, performer-specific
projects (earmarks), a return to earmarking in 2008 after a one-year moratorium
in 2007. The House would also boost funding for NASA Education, by 22 percent
over the current year to $220 million. Included would be $10 million for a new
competitive program to educate students on global climate change.
Impacts
of the NASA Budget
The
proposed increase to NASA’s R&D portfolio in FY 2008, now endorsed and added
to by the House and Senate, would continue a modest upward trend for the last
few years after hitting bottom in 2005, as shown in Figure 1. NASA’s R&D funding
has just kept pace with inflation going back to FY 1991, and recent increases
have been just barely ahead of inflation. 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
House appropriation could be a first step in arresting and reversing the slide.
Outlook and Next Steps
The
full House is expected to debate and approve the Commerce-Justice-Science bill
within the next week, although final approval may be delayed by a crowded House
floor schedule. The Senate Appropriations Committee has drafted its own version,
but has not scheduled time to debate it. Congress will try to send a final version
of the bill to President Bush before the October 1 start of FY 2008. The President
has threatened to veto any 2008 appropriations bill that exceeds his request,
as the House version does by $2.3 billion, so the bill may have to go through
several rewrites and revotes before it can become law.
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July 20, 2007
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
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