Highlights-
The Senate Appropriations Committee has drafted a 2009 spending bill that would
give the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) $17.8 billion next
year (see Table), an increase of $635 million or
3.7 percent, with the entire increase and more going to two big-ticket human space
programs. The Constellation Systems program to develop the next generation of
human spacecraft would receive $3.1 billion, an increase of 24.5 percent or $606
million. The International Space Station would receive $2.1 billion, a $247 million
or 13.6 percent increase, as construction ramps up toward completion in 2010.
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Although the Senate would add funding to the request for earth science, planetary
science, and aeronautics research programs, NASA’s research-oriented programs
would still see funding cuts in 2009. NASA support of basic and applied research
would fall for the fifth year in a row, down 2.5 percent in the Senate plan. The
Science portfolio would fall 3.9 percent to $4.5 billion, with especially steep
cuts in Astrophysics and Heliophysics.
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The NASA R&D portfolio would increase 5.5 percent or $675 million to $12.9
billion in the Senate appropriation (see Table),
with the entire increase and more coming from Constellation Systems and the Space
Station.
NASA R&D in FY 2009 Senate Appropriations
On June 19, the Senate Appropriations
Committee approved its version of the FY 2009 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations
bill (S 3182) providing funding for the Department of Commerce,
the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), for consideration by the full Senate
in July. The House approved its own version of the bill on June 25; full details
of the House version will be available shortly. Both the House and Senate bills
contain close to $57 billion in 2009 discretionary spending, $5 to $6 billion more than the current year
and between $3 and $4 billion more than the President’s request for these programs.
The
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) continues to forge ahead
with its full program of flying the Space Shuttle, building the Space Station,
funding research across a broad range of disciplines, and developing the next
generation of space vehicles, but tight budget constraints in the overall federal
budget and a long-term budget plan of doing everything within a budget rising
no faster than the rate of inflation are forcing tough choices in the agency’s
priorities. Although the House and the Senate are both considering NASA authorization
bills that would authorize more than $19 billion for the agency in 2009, in the
world of appropriations boosting NASA’s budget is proving to be much tougher.
The Senate would give NASA $17.8 billion in FY 2009, $200 million more than the
request and $635 million or 3.7 percent more than the current year (see Table)
but far short of the proposed authorizations. (NASA recently received $62.5 million
in 2008 funding as part of the 2008 supplemental appropriations
bill. The Table includes these supplementals
in the 2008 column.)
NASA’s
R&D funding would climb $675 million or 5.5 percent to $12.9 billion in
the Senate plan (see Table). But 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 R&D increase and more, leaving
all other NASA R&D programs combined with declining funding.
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 for this effort has exploded in recent years. NASA and now the
Senate would boost funding by a remarkable 24.5 percent or $606 million to $3.1
billion, with the CEV and CLV receiving a billion dollars each. Although the longstanding
goal has been to launch these vehicles in 2014, the current project timetable
is working toward a launch date of 2015, with a mission to the moon by 2020. The
Senate would allocate a little more than the request to keep the project on track
for these targets.
Unfortunately,
the current timetable would leave a gap of 5 years between the 2010 planned retirement
of the Space Shuttle and the 2015 CLV launch when the U.S. will not have the capability
to launch humans into space. During this time, NASA will have to rely on other
nations, notably Russia, to transport astronauts to and from the International
Space Station (ISS). The International Space Station (ISS) budget would climb
13.6 percent or $247 million to $2.1 billion in 2009 for a ramped-up construction
schedule aiming for final assembly of the Station in 2010, followed by full operations
through 2016 sustained by the purchase of Russian space flights to and from the
Station after the Space Shuttle retires in 2010. The Space Shuttle, a non-R&D
NASA program, is almost exclusively in operation to finish assembly of the Space
Station with a $3.0 billion request and Senate appropriation in 2009, down 8.7
percent. The current NASA plan is to have another $3.0 billion Shuttle request
in 2010 to finish Station assembly, but then retire the craft with less than $100
million in 2011 for close-out costs. The Shuttle savings in 2011 and later would
then be transferred to other NASA programs, primarily Constellation Systems. But
Congress may have other ideas; the NASA authorizations under consideration would
explore options to keep the Space Shuttle flying after 2010 or accelerate development
of the Constellation Systems craft to narrow the gap.
Together,
the Constellation Systems increases for development and ISS increases for R&D
facilities would take up the entire increase for NASA R&D, leaving all other
NASA R&D programs combined with cuts, following similar cuts in each of the
last five years. NASA’s basic and applied research support would fall 2.5 percent
in the Senate appropriation down to $3.2 billion, the fifth year in a row the
NASA research portfolio would fall. Despite $54 million in additional Senate
funding, aeronautics research funding would still fall 2.3 percent down to $500
million in 2009 following steeper cuts in previous years.
The
Science portfolio of earth observations, astronomy, and robotic exploration of
the solar system and universe would fall in 2009 after a slight increase in 2008.
The Science portfolio would fall 3.9 percent to $4.5 billion, with especially
steep cuts in Astrophysics (down 14 percent) and Heliophysics (down 27 percent).
The Senate would add funding to Planetary Science (up 10 percent) and Earth Science
(up 9 percent), however, with a special emphasis on new earth science missions.
In
the Earth Science portfolio (up 8.9 percent to $1.4 billion), the 2009 request
and the Senate appropriation would attempt to rebuild a robust earth-observing
capability after sharp cuts in earlier years. Last year, a National Academy
of Sciences decadal survey of earth science expressed concern that the number
of earth-observing sensors on NASA spacecraft could decrease by 40 percent during
this decade if recent trends had continued. In response, NASA would add at least
three new missions by 2013 compared to previous plans, and would boost funding
for Earth Systematic Missions by 28 percent to $678 million. The Senate would
go further by boosting mission funding to $742 million to accelerate development
of these new missions. The account funds costs for future missions such
as the multi-agency NPOESS satellites, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)
mission, the Glory mission to measure aerosols, and the Landsat Data Continuity
Mission. The account also funds operating costs for current missions such as Terra,
Aqua, Aura, and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRIMM). The Senate would
also add $15 million to the request to fund competitively selected research projects
using these satellite data.
The
Planetary Science portfolio would also receive a boost on top of a requested increase,
for a Senate total of $1.4 billion (up 9.6 percent). The Senate would add $76
million to the request for Mars Exploration for a total of $463 million, including
$300 million for the 2009 Mars Science Lab. Astrophysics funding would fall 14.3
percent down to $1.1 billion. Projected costs for the existing Hubble Space Telescope
and the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled for a 2013 launch would fall. And
Heliophysics funding would fall 27 percent down to $615 million, but primarily
because the Senate would agree with NASA’s proposal to transfer funding for Deep
Space Mission Systems and Near Earth Networks out of Science and into Space Operations.
Heliophysics Research would begin to recover from past budget cuts with an $18
million increase to $199 million in the Senate appropriation.
Elsewhere
in the Senate appropriation, the Senate would add $80 million for congressionally
designated projects (earmarks). These earmarks are no longer classified as R&D.
Outlook and Next Steps
The
full Senate is expected to debate and approve the Commerce-Justice-Science bill
in July, while the House is also expected to consider its version in July. But
there is increasing doubt as to whether Congress will try to send a final version
of the bill to President Bush before the October 1 start of FY 2009. The President
has threatened to veto any 2009 appropriations bill that exceeds his request;
since both the House and Senate versions of the bill do so and since Congress
is not inclined to do the heavy lifting of negotiating a House-Senate compromise
bill only to see it vetoed, the bill may have a long way to go before its funding
levels become final. As was the case last year, the final funding outcome for
NASA will depend on whether the higher congressional bill total will prevail or
whether, as was the case in 2008, Congress will rewrite the bill with lower funding
levels to fit the President’s budget totals. Although Congress is willing to authorize
generous funding increases in NASA authorization bills to enable the agency to
carry out its many missions, the problem in appropriations is finding the actual
dollars to spend within a very tight budgetary framework.
(This
analysis is one of a series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on FY 2009 congressional
appropriations. The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including
continually updated analyses of R&D in FY 2009 appropriations, is available
on the AAAS R&D web site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the "FY 2009 R&D" or the "What's
New" sections.)
- July 1, 2008
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy
Program
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
AAAS
R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
