NASA鈥檚 chief stood before the US Congressional subcommittee that controls the agency鈥檚 purse strings on Wednesday. He defended his agency鈥檚 decision to shift money from science missions to pay for the space shuttle and the International Space Station.
If approved by Congress, NASA will move $2 billion from the science budget to help cover projected cost overruns to fly the shuttles until they are retired in 2010. The planned crewed missions to the Moon, currently scheduled for as early as 2018, will also take a financial hit.
Previous budgets had underestimated the cost to retire the shuttles and finish building the space station by $3 billion to $5 billion.
Advertisement
The result is that some science missions 鈥� including the Terrestrial Planet Finder, the Space Interferometry Mission and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy 鈥� have had to be delayed. And the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the successor to the shuttle, will not fly as early as some would like.
Robbing Peter?
When asked whether delays would become de facto cancellations, NASA administrator Mike Griffin said: 鈥淭here may be smaller missions that just don鈥檛 make the cut.鈥� He added that the larger missions would be likely to fly.
Griffin urged the committee not to redistribute money back to the science budget, calling it 鈥渞obbing Peter to pay Paul鈥�. He said this would delay the first flight of the CEV.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 see it as robbing,鈥� said Senator Barbara Mikulski, a supporter of NASA science missions and a member of the committee. 鈥淲e see it as a giveback.鈥�
Mikulski also grilled Griffin about the decision to hurry the completion of the International Space Station, and then retiring the shuttles before a replacement vehicle is ready to service the station.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to build the station, but then we can鈥檛 get there,鈥� Mikulski pointed out. 鈥淚 think this is a dilemma.鈥�
Griffin sighed: 鈥淵es, senator, it is.鈥�
Private launchers
NASA is counting on other countries to continue taking crews and cargo to the station once the shuttles have stopped flying. During the shuttle鈥檚 hiatus after the Columbia accident, Russia was solely responsible for taking crews and cargo to the ISS. Japan plans to help send cargo with its H-IIA Transfer Vehicle, which has not yet flown to the station.
NASA is also hoping that private aerospace companies will be able to build a new launcher to take astronauts and supplies to the station during the period in which it has no vehicle to go to the space station.
Griffin said that NASA will have the technical capability to fly the shuttle鈥檚 replacement, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, as early as 2011, but from a budget standpoint, the CEV will not be able to fly until 2013 or 2014.
Mikulski said she was trying to get more money for NASA Fiscal Year 2007. Subcommittee chairman Richard Shelby agreed that NASA was underfunded despite its 3.2% increase over 2006鈥檚 budget.
