|
 The White House is requesting a $17.5 billion budget for the U.S.
space agency in the fiscal year that begins October 1.
That marks a 1 percent decrease from NASA's 2014 budget. But NASA
could also have access to an additional $900 million from Obama's
proposed Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative, a $56 billion
fund for special projects that is separate from the regular budget.
If approved, the agency would have $1.1 billion next year to help at
least two companies develop commercial space taxis to fly astronauts
to and from the space station. The $100 billion research outpost, a
project of 15 nations, flies about 260 miles above Earth.
Since the space shuttles were retired in 2011, the United States is
dependent on Russia to fly crews to the space station at a cost of
more than $65 million a seat.
For now, escalating U.S. tensions with Russia over the crisis in
Ukraine have not affected the space partnership, NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden told reporters on a conference call.
"We are continuing to monitor the situation," Bolden said. "Right
now, everything is normal in our relationship with the Russians," he
said.
Currently, NASA is supporting space taxi designs by Boeing Co,
privately owned Space Exploration Technologies and privately owned
Sierra Nevada Corp.
The agency intends to select at least two companies for a final
round of development funding this summer. Obama wants to have U.S.
options for flying astronauts to the station before the end of 2017.
The so-called Commercial Crew program is receiving $696 million for
the 2014 fiscal year ending September 30. The proposed funding
increase would add as much as $400 million to the program for fiscal
2015.
The new budget also includes $3.1 billion for NASA to operate the
station and provides $2.8 billion to continue development of the
Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and Orion capsule for future
human missions to the moon, asteroids and Mars. An unmanned Orion
test flight is scheduled for September 18.
[to top of second column] |
One of the first operational Orion missions would send astronauts to
an asteroid that has been robotically relocated into a high orbit
around the moon. Planning for the so-called Asteroid Redirect
Mission gets a boost to $133 million in the 2015 budget proposal, up
from $78 million in 2014.
As currently envisioned, hiking spending on the asteroid initiative
means cutbacks in other programs, warns the Coalition for Space
Exploration, a Houston-based industry advocacy organization.
"We remain concerned and opposed to the annual effort to drain funds
from our nation's exploration programs," the group said in a
statement.
Science missions would share nearly $5 billion in 2015, including
$15 million to begin planning for a mid-2020s mission to Europa, an
ice-encrusted moon of Jupiter.
Scientists have strong evidence that the moon has a vast ocean
beneath its frozen surface. Water is believed to be essential for
life.
"It's one of those places where life might occur, in the past or
now, and so we're really excited about going there," said NASA's
Chief Financial Officer Beth Robinson.
The proposed budget keeps the Hubble Space Telescope successor
program — an infrared observatory known as the James Webb Space
Telescope — on track for launch in 2018. It also lets NASA begin
planning for a new telescope to probe the mysterious force known as
"dark energy" that is driving the universe apart at faster and
faster rates.
(Editing by Kevin Gray, Tom Brown and Ken Wills)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
