NASA officials say Bush mission goals can be attained
Despite cutbacks in some of NASA's basic science programs, the space agency's top brass maintained Tuesday that President Bush's sweeping order to reshape its mission is both "achievable and affordable" over the next decade -- even though it will push the bounds of science and technology to accomplish the president's goals.
In a budget briefing at NASA headquarters, Administrator Sean O'Keefe and Comptroller Steve Isakowitz acknowledged that the out-year costs of Bush's order to refocus the agency's mission on space exploration were unknowable at this point. But they expressed confidence that, in the foreseeable future at least, NASA and its contractors have the brainpower and resourcefulness to figure out how to do the assigned job within the budget laid down by the administration.
O'Keefe also took issue with a suggestion that the agency's basic science programs were being somewhat stunted in order to shift resources to the president's proposal, at a time when the very limits of science and technology would be stretched by the demands of space exploration. "I would hope you wouldn't arrive at that conclusion," he told one reporter. "The idea is to look at known technology and push it as far as it can go."
Noting that NASA's budget blueprint for the next five years is the first that matches its goals with its available resources, O'Keefe said the president's objectives are "achievable and focused."
Isakowitz later acknowledged it is too early now to tell what the new technologies for space exploration, replete with a springboard station on the moon, will cost. But he insisted that "there is a misconception" among some critics that the venture is going to be too expensive to sustain.
According to the president's fiscal 2005 budget plan, NASA is to get a 5.6 percent increase in budget authority and a 12.2 percent boost in actual outlays. In all, budget authority will be $16.2 billion, up from $15.4 billion this year. But OMB figures also show that some basic science programs will take a hit as funds are shifted to pay for the president's initiative.
Overall spending authority for the sciences will shrink next year by 2 percent, but the bulk of that shrinkage will affect earth sciences and aeronautics programs as the money for space and biological sciences is increased. Exploration efforts, mainly involving hardware and related technology issues, will be boosted to $8.5 billion from $7.5 billion.
Isakowitz also expressed hope that, as the agency segues into its new role, its leaders can persuade Congress to ease back on inserting home-town "earmarked" projects -- especially those that do not dovetail with the new exploration mission -- in NASA's annual budgets. In 1977, he recalled, there were six congressional earmarks worth about $70 million; this year there were 150 worth some $400 million.
On another controversial note, O'Keefe said a final decision had not been made on whether to retain a space shuttle capability -- once the International Space Station is completed -- to maintain the orbiting Hubble Telescope. Hubble's performance in bringing the universe and its marvels into Earth's visual range has attracted a huge popular following. But O'Keefe and some others have questioned whether the risk to shuttle astronauts, who leave their space vehicle to repair and furbish the telescope, is worth the instrument's harvest.