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| NASA R&D in the FY 2000 Budget
Lori A. Staley, AIAA |
HIGHLIGHTS
AGENCY OVERVIEW AND POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 established NASA to conduct aeronautics and space activities devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all humankind. As part of that mission, one of NASA's key functions as the lead agency for civil space R&D has been to preserve U.S. leadership in aeronautics and space science and technology. NASA's research efforts have, in part, helped lay the foundation for economic growth and competitiveness in the aerospace sector, which today generates over $40 billion in annual exports and nearly $30 billion in positive balance of trade each year. Aviation products are the largest positive industrial contributor to the U.S. balance of trade. Last year, NASA celebrated its 40th anniversary by launching and assembling in orbit the first two pieces of the International Space Station (ISS) and by sending then-Senator John Glenn (D-OH) into space for a second time as part of a mission to study aging and its effects in space. Other achievements in 1998 include the launch of new missions to Mars and Space Shuttle science research missions, one of which was the Neurolab Mission in April, 1998. Last year, Congress was successful in passing several bills directly affecting NASA. The House Science Committee held numerous oversight hearings in the last year on the International Space Station and the partnership with Russia, and on Russia's problems in meeting funding and schedule requirements. Congress completed action on a NASA authorization bill for FY 1998-99, sending it to the President for his signature for the first time since 1992. It authorizes $13.5 billion for FY 1999 and $13.7 billion for FY 2000 for the total NASA budget. (See Chapter 1 for a discussion of authorization vs. appropriations bills.) Congress increased funding for NASA in the FY 1999 VA, HUD and Independent Agencies appropriations bill, which includes funding for NASA. It approved appropriations of $13.7 billion for NASA, $200 million more than the budget request (see Table II-12). This follows a pattern in which Congress increases funding for NASA in the annual appropriations process over the budget request. The final budget provided the requested $2.3 billion for the space station but did not address the issue of additional funds for the Russian Space Agency. Congress instructed NASA to create a separate account for space station funds to make it more difficult to divert funds to pay for additional station costs from other programs within the Human Space Flight account or from other accounts, including R&D projects and aeronautical programs. Congress also completed action on the Commercial Space Act of 1998, a signal of support for private sector commercialization and the economic development of space. The new law updates and clarifies complex commercial space licensing requirements. It also gives the Department of Transportation the authority to license next-generation reusable launch vehicles operated by commercial companies. NASA prepared a draft Commercial Development Plan for ISS as directed by the bill. More emphasis on commercialization efforts and privatizing daily operations work over to contractors may free up valuable NASA resources and allow the agency to concentrate more fully on research and development programs. BUDGET OVERVIEW The President's FY 2000 budget request for NASA is $13.6 billion, a decrease of 0.6 percent from last year's enacted budget of $13.7 billion (see Table II-12). This also represents an increase from outyear projections in last year's budget request setting funding for FY 2000 at $13.3 billion. Although the budget request would represent a decrease from the FY 1999 level, it does call for an increase in the outyears for the first time in five years. This year's budget request contains outyear projections that will increase NASA's budget to $13.8 billion in FY 2002 and hold it steady through FY 2004. Total FY 2000 NASA support of R&D would increase by 0.6 percent to $9.8 billion. The percentage of NASA's budget devoted to science and technology would increase to 41 percent, from 31 percent in FY 1991. The NASA budget request for FY 2000 is composed of five appropriations, three of which include R&D funding. The first category, International Space Station, provides funding for the ISS, including development of research facilities. (For comparability with past years, Table II-12 shows the ISS account and the Launch Vehicles and Payload Operations account under the old structure of the Human Space Flight account.) Science, Aeronautics and Technology (SAT) funds NASA's research and development activities, including all science activities, global monitoring, aeronautics, technology investments, education programs, and mission communications services. The third category is Mission Support. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION This year's budget request of $394 million for Space Station Research reflects the consolidation of research related to the Space Station within one account. The Offices of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLMSA), Earth Science, and Space Science are still responsible for establishing the research requirements associated with the ISS and funding the principal investigators. NASA would like to transition utilization responsibilities back to the research offices as soon as payload facilities are operational. The ISS research facilities will be used to study the role of gravity on biological, physical and chemical systems. The core of the Space Station research program will be eight major research research facilities. NASA also plans for commercial research programs to take advantage of new opportunities for space flight operations. NASA is looking for ways to encourage commercial users of the research facilities to help subsidize costs. Congress has directed NASA to commercialize the ISS to the fullest extent possible to get the agency out of the business of operating the ISS so that it can focus on research. In 1998, an independent task force conducted an assessment of the projected U.S. cost for the ISS. Its report, commonly known as the Chabrow report, concluded that NASA's earlier estimates on the project's total cost were overly optimistic. In response, the FY 2000 request would provide an augmentation of $1.4 billion over five years compared to previous budget plans, including $349 million in FY 2000. Space station research planning and facilities development has been slowed due to schedule delays precipitated by Russia's inability to deliver its components on time. The amount of research funding for ISS is expected to double by FY 2001 over FY 1998 levels, but the rate of growth is slower than in earlier projections. Total ISS R&D funding in the FY 2000 request is $2.5 billion, an increase of 10.3 percent. However, this growth is due to the consolidation of space station research funding, which was included in other accounts in last year's budget. The Payload Utilization and Operations budget, included within the Launch Vehicles and Payload Operations account, supports the processing and flight of Space Shuttle payloads and NASA payloads launched from Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELV). The FY 2000 request for Advanced Projects, which is the only R&D included in this area, is for $6 million, a $14 million decrease from the $20 million requested and approved last year. SCIENCE, AERONAUTICS AND TECHNOLOGY (SAT) The SAT appropriation has the majority of R&D programs, accounting for nearly half of total NASA funding for research and development. It funds R&D activities that extend our knowledge of the Earth, its space environment, and the universe. SAT also provides funds to invest in new aeronautics and advanced space transportation technologies that support the development and application of technologies critical to national economic, scientific, and technical competitiveness. Funding for R&D is included in accounts for space science, life and microgravity sciences, earth science, aero-space technology, mission communications, and academic programs. The FY 2000 budget request for SAT R&D funding is $5.4 billion, down 4.1 percent from last year's budget of $5.7 billion. Space Science: NASA's budget request for Space Science R&D is $2.2 billion, up 3.7 percent from $2.1 billion. The Space Science Enterprise seeks to solve mysteries of the universe, explore the solar system, and make discoveries through exploration. Long-term goals include establishing a virtual presence throughout the solar system, pursuing future human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, developing revolutionary technologies for missions impossible in the past, and contributing to achieving national science, mathematics, and technology education goals. The Enterprise is also collaborating with the science community, international partners, and other federal R&D agencies in the conduct of its missions. Another goal is ensuring science community input by utilizing peer review in the Discovery, Explorers, and Supporting Research and Technology programs. The Relativity/Gravity Probe-B and TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) missions are scheduled for launch in calendar year 2000, as is a third servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Two Explorer missions (the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) and the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE)) and one Small Explorer (SMEX) mission are also planned for year 2000 launches. NASA is also expanding its support of graduate and postgraduate professional education to include a special emphasis on pre-college education and on increasing the public's understanding of science and technology. Life and Microgravity Sciences: R&D in the request for the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences (OLMSA) is down 2.8 percent to $256 million. OLMSA leads the nation's efforts in space biological, physical and chemical sciences, and aerospace medicine. The program enables and exploits human space flight to improve the quality of life for people on Earth. Select R&D programs within OLMSA include Biomedical Research and Countermeasures ($53 million), Microgravity Research Program ($111 million), and Space Medicine Research ($7 million). Earth Science: NASA's FY 2000 budget request for Earth Science is $1.5 billion, an increase of 3.2 percent. The goal of Earth Science is to better understand the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the planet's environment. (For more information on Earth Science, please see Chapter 17.) Aero-Space Technology (AST): This was previously called Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology. AST's goal is to provide revolutionary advancements in science and technology that sustain U.S. leadership in civil aeronautics and space. The total AST funding request is $1.0 billion, a decline of 24.8 percent from the FY 1999 budget of $1.3 billion. The AST budget is divided into three subcategories in the budget request: Aeronautical Research and Technology (ART), Advanced Space Transportation, and Commercial Technology Programs. Within AST, the Aeronautical Research and Technology (ART) funding request is $620 million, a decline of 19.4 percent from $769 million in FY 1999. Two aeronautical-focused programs (High-Speed Research and Advanced Subsonic Technology) would be eliminated. NASA invests in pre-competitive, high-risk technologies and performs high-speed research to develop the technologies that industry needs to design and build an environmentally compatible and economically competitive High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT). Industry has reduced its commitment to high-speed research based on analyses indicating that an economically viable HSCT requires further significant investments and may not be developed before 2020. Congress is expected to raise the issue of high-speed research funding and the future of the U.S. aircraft industry during budget deliberations. The issue is whether NASA should continue to aggressively perform high-risk research despite a lack of industry interest and viable commercial market demand. The FY 2000 budget would fund two new aeronautical programs, Aviation Safety and Ultra Efficient Engine Technology. A third program, Aviation System Capacity (ASC), had previously been budgeted within the Advanced Subsonic Technology program, which would be eliminated in FY 2000 due to other budget requirements, namely the International Space Station. ASC would become a separate program in FY 2000 to address the growing problems and inflexibility of the nation's airspace system. R&D funding in the Advanced Space Transportation Technology account in FY 2000 would decrease from $430 million to $254 million. The funding request for X-33 is $112 million in FY 2000, down from $277 million last year. The budget request does not include funding for the Bantam/Low-Cost Upper Stages program. The budget request would fund the Advanced Space Transportation Program at $56 million, up from the FY 1999 level of $51 million. The Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) program supports technology development of next-generation reusable systems, the X-33 and X-34 flight demonstrators. The FY 2000 request of $112 million for X-33 will support flight tests planned to begin in July 2000, after having been delayed from July 1999. NASA requests $31 million in FY 2000 for "Future X" Pathfinder experimental vehicles to continue flight demonstration of technologies for reusable space launch and orbital transportation systems. Pathfinder projects demonstrate launch vehicle technology one generation beyond X-33 and X-34. Congress added $19 million to the Future-X program in the FY 1999 budget. One new Pathfinder demonstrator and seven flight experiments were selected for initiation in FY 1999. The last major program area, Commercial Technology Programs, would increase to $133 million in FY 1999. The focus of this program area is to ensure that NASA-developed technology is transferred to U.S. industry to improve U.S. economic competitiveness. This account also includes funding for the Small Business Innovation Research Programs. Mission Communications Services: This program provides telecommunications systems and services, including network management and engineering, pre-flight test and verification, flight system maneuver planning, and analysis for selected missions. In FY 2000, R&D funding for Mission Communications Services would total $406 million, a 6.9 percent increase over $380 million in FY 1999. Academic Programs: NASA promotes excellence in the U.S. educational system by enhancing and expanding scientific and technological competence. The FY 2000 request is $100 million, a decrease of 27.8 percent from last year. Congress added $39 million to last year's budget request of $100 million, and the request would not renew those additional funds. MISSION SUPPORT R&D The FY 2000 budget request for the Mission Support account is $2.5 billion, of which $1.9 billion would support R&D, an increase of 3.7 percent from FY 1999. This account provides for mission support for human space flight programs and for science, aeronautics, and technology programs. | |
