Feb. 6, 2006<br /><br />Dean Acosta/Doc Mirelson<br />Headquarters, Washington<br />(202) 358-1400/1600 <br /><br />RELEASE: 06-056<br /><br />NASA ADMINISTRATOR'S STATEMENT ABOUT FY 2007 BUDGET<br /><br />"This morning, the President announced the Fiscal Year 2007 budget <br />request for the entire federal government. This includes a $16.8 <br />billion request for NASA, which represents a 3.2 percent increase <br />over the 2006 budget appropriated for NASA, not counting our <br />emergency supplemental needed to recover from Hurricane Katrina. <br /><br />This budget, with an increase over last year's appropriation, <br />demonstrates the President's commitment to carrying out the Vision <br />for Space Exploration, which he articulated from this stage just over <br />two years ago, and especially so in view o the other pressures on the <br />government in the wake of the greatest natural disaster our nation <br />has faced and the war on terrorism. <br /><br />However, let me put our budget in overall perspective. NASA's budget <br />is roughly 0.7 percent of the overall federal budget. This is a <br />modest investment to extend the frontiers of space exploration, <br />scientific discovery, and aeronautics research. With it, we enhance <br />American leadership, our safety and security, and our global economic <br />competitiveness through the technological innovations stemming from <br />our space and aeronautics research programs. As we look forward to <br />the events that will define this century and beyond, I have no doubt <br />that the expansion of human presence into the solar system will be <br />among the greatest of our achievements. I am proud that America, <br />through NASA, leads the way. <br /><br />But leadership means setting priorities of time, energy, and <br />resources, and leadership means making difficult decisions based on <br />the best facts and analysis available. One plain fact is NASA simply <br />cannot afford to do everything that our many constituencies would <br />like us to do. We must set priorities, and we must adjust our <br />spending to match those priorities. <br /><br />Setting these priorities and formulating the budget to reflect them <br />is, in many respects, the foremost policy decision a NASA <br />Administrator makes in the course of working with the White House and <br />Congress. Our democracy demands a healthy debate on such funding <br />priorities, and I believe that this budget provides a balanced <br />approach in setting them. <br /><br />NASA is implementing the priorities set by the President and the <br />Congress within the resources provided. This budget demonstrates our <br />national commitment to implementing the Vision for Exploration. It <br />balances NASA's mission to complete the assembly of the International <br />Space Station and fulfill our international partner commitments, <br />while using the minimum number of Shuttle flights to do so. It <br />supports our goal of bringing the Crew Exploration Vehicle online no <br />later than 2014, and potentially much sooner. It provides over $5.3 <br />billion in funding for NASA's science missions and over $724 million <br />for aeronautics research. The FY07 budget also provides almost $500 <br />million for cross-agency support programs, such as science and math <br />education, innovative partnerships for NASA to leverage commercial <br />industry, and development of the unified agency-wide management <br />systems to get NASA's finances in better order. NASA must be a good <br />steward of the taxpayer's money, and we must change the way we have <br />done business in the past in order to achieve this goal. <br /><br />We must seek innovative ways to leverage, to the maximum extent <br />practicable, the investments being made by commercial industry and <br />through international partnerships. We must plan executable programs <br />with priority given to the required timing and affordability of <br />needed capabilities. As I have testified previously to the Congress, <br />we will go as we can afford to pay, and we will set priorities for <br />our time, resources, and energy. For example, NASA's exploration <br />architecture cannot afford the robust space nuclear R&D program that <br />was previously planned. Thus, rather than engaging in them halfway, <br />we have cut back those efforts. But because it is important in the <br />long run, we will seek to leverage the work of other nations which <br />have developed small nuclear reactors that could be applied to space. <br /><br /><br />Following Congressional direction to strive to bring the CEV online as <br />soon as possible after 2010, as part of a balanced exploration <br />program, NASA is cutting back on Space Station research in order to <br />allocate funding to the CEV. However, as designated by the NASA <br />Authorization Act, the International Space Station is a National <br />Laboratory. Therefore, NASA seeks partnerships with other government <br />agencies and the commercial sector to conduct research onboard the <br />station. <br /><br />So, let me now address NASA's plans within the five year budget <br />horizon to carry out the task of assembling the International Space <br />Station with the fewest possible Space shuttle flights, and then to <br />retire the Shuttle in 2010. As I testified before this Congress last <br />November, we were working through the problem of a $3 to $5 billion <br />shortfall for FY2006 to FY2010 to carry out these ISS assembly <br />missions. In previous years, NASA's Shuttle budget had assumed <br />certain placeholder numbers in the out years that were clearly <br />insufficient to complete the mission. We have solved this problem <br />with the Shuttle funding shortfall in the 2007-11 budgets, again <br />consistent with the policy direction provided by the President and <br />Congress. We still have challenges in implementing this plan, so let <br />me delve into it a bit. When I presented NASA's exploration <br />architecture to the Congress and public last September, the budget <br />profile for that architecture was simply the FY 2006 budget run out <br />identified for Exploration Systems, not other parts of the NASA <br />budget. <br /><br />That view of the exploration budget did not account for other problems <br />with the shuttle budget in the out years. We've worked hard to <br />address this problem more holistically in the FY 2007-11 budget <br />formulation. We also are delving more deeply into the strategic <br />implications of using shuttle-derived launch systems for the Crew <br />Launch Vehicle and Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicle. We believe that <br />significant synergies and contract efficiencies between subsystems, <br />personnel, resources, and infrastructure can be found. Thus, we are <br />applying some funds from the exploration budget profile between now <br />and 2010 to the shuttle's budget line to ensure the shuttle and <br />station programs have the resources necessary to carry out the first <br />steps of the Vision for Space Exploration. The greatest management <br />challenge the agency faces over the next five years is the transition <br />from retiring the shuttle to bringing the crew exploration vehicle <br />on-line. <br /><br />The implications of this program and budget synergy between the <br />shuttle and CEV launch vehicle programs are the following: The budget <br />is sufficient to bring the CEV online by 2014 at the latest, and <br />possibly much sooner. NASA has asked industry for proposals to bring <br />the CEV online as close to 2010 as possible and not later than 2012. <br />In the months ahead, NASA will receive those industry proposals, <br />evaluate them for technical and cost viability, and define savings <br />from these integrated shuttle and exploration budget profiles. The <br />bottom line is this: NASA's plans are to bring the CEV online as <br />close to 2010 as possible, but not later than 2014. Given the <br />analysis we have today, we cannot set a more definitive target date <br />for the CEV to our stakeholders in the White House and Congress. But <br />I believe that with the budget proposed today NASA and industry have <br />a real opportunity to make the CEV operational much sooner than 2014. <br />The transition between the shuttle retirement and bringing the CEV <br />online requires NASA and industry to work as a team in the months and <br />years ahead. NASA is in source selection with the CEV procurement, <br />and we will not go beyond my comments here. <br /><br />I will now turn to NASA's space science portfolio, which remains one <br />of the nation's crown jewels. The agency's budget for space and Earth <br />science has seen significant budget increases for over a decade, far <br />surpassing any growth in NASA's top-line budgets during those years. <br />For FY 2007-11, we cannot afford such growth for science within the <br />context of a top-line budget that is growing at essentially the rate <br />of inflation. Thus, NASA's science budget will grow by 1.5 percent in <br />FY 2007 and 1 percent thereafter between 2008 and 2011. <br /><br />As we work closely with our international partners and the science <br />community, NASA's Science Mission Directorate remains a world leader, <br />operating 56 space missions with an annual budget of over $5.3 <br />billion per year. The FY 07 budget provides funds for an armada of <br />satellite missions to make scientific measurements of changes in the <br />salinity of our oceans and land resource uses, test instruments for <br />the next-generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites, monitor <br />solar flare impacts on the Earth's magnetosphere, landing the next <br />generation of rovers on Mars, and peering into the farthest reaches <br />of the universe with the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. <br /><br />Turning to Aeronautics Research, the $724.4 million allocation in the <br />President's budget will begin the process of re-establishing NASA's <br />dedication to the mastery of our core competencies in subsonic, <br />supersonic, and hypersonic flight. We have begun the development of <br />aeronautics research programs that are focused, relevant, and of <br />interest to a broad research community in government, industry, and <br />academia. <br /><br />While I am concerned that our nation's aviation industry not lose <br />market share to global competitors, NASA's aeronautics research <br />cannot and will not directly subsidize work to specific corporate <br />interests. Rather, NASA's R&D must benefit the American public by <br />supporting the broader community of aeronautics researchers. There <br />are fundamental questions in aeronautics research needing to be <br />answered, and NASA will focus its aeronautics research on those <br />issues. By refocusing our efforts on fundamental issues in <br />aeronautics, we can best serve the longer term needs of our industry. <br /><br /><br />Beyond the purely budgetary perspective, I would now like to discuss <br />NASA's most important resource: our people. The NASA management team <br />has been working on the issues and means to rebuild NASA so as to <br />have 10 healthy centers known for technical greatness. We continue to <br />define program management and research roles and responsibilities for <br />each center in carrying out NASA's missions of space exploration, <br />scientific discovery, and aeronautics research. <br /><br />I will ensure that all of our centers contribute to NASA's primary <br />mission of space exploration and discovery. We are beginning the <br />process of assigning specific research programs and projects to <br />appropriate NASA centers. We are not done, but we are taking steps in <br />the right direction. We have many challenges in the agency, but none <br />more important than the technical excellence of NASA's workforce. <br />Likewise, we are beginning to address the issues of NASA's facilities <br />and physical assets. We have a lot of work cut out for us in the <br />coming months and year ahead." <br /><br />For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: <br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov/home