Washington, DC – February 3, 1998 – The Clinton administration asked Congress Monday for $13.4 billion in spending for civil space needs, in a budget changed only by a few hundred million or so less from last fiscal year – on the surface, that is. But under the surface – and not withstanding a host of small project new starts like a Europa satellite and a new rocket tech project – NASA’s highest priority project, the International Space Station, faces a serious crisis later in the year.
NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin is asking for more than $2 billion for
station, but in addition to that amount, some $800 million is being shifted
from other NASA spending plans to replenish station reserves depleted last
year by staggering cost overruns in the Boeing module prime contract. As a
result, the project will need some $200 million in additional reprogrammed,
transferred money by spring or face a shutdown. For the extra millions,
Goldin will need Congressional o.k. – something the Hill denied the space
chief last year, fearing that programs like Space Shuttle and Aeronautics
research might be unduly cut by the switch.
Goldin told a Washington news conference Monday that the money would not be
moved from critical Human Spaceflight accounts, if the approval authority
is granted. And he warned that if Congress refuses, “then by midyear there
will be a problem with Space Station,” he predicted.
Other budget highlights include approval for a space probe to orbit Europa,
the Moon of Jupiter, and Future X, a long awaited research project to
follow the X-33 and X-34 with advanced space launch technology that would
be considered today radical concepts. NASA is also asking Congress for
money for upgrades to the Shuttle launch base’s Pad 39A, accelerated
funding for the Earth Observing System data architecture, and a tiny amount
– some $10 million – to continue studies of human trips to Mars. The budget
also sets out some $400 million earmarked over the next two years for the
rescue craft for the Space Station, called the CRV.
Goldin hailed his budget as a symbol of the Clinton administration’s
support for space. But he overlooked one truth in the claim: of all of the
U.S. government’s science research agencies, only NASA’s numbers got cut in
the FY99 requests unloaded to Capital Hill Monday. Every other agency saw
increases. Maybe that was the loudest statement of all on the
administration’s support for space. As one critic remarked following the
press coneference: “well, just how much does it take to send a 77 year old
man into space these days?”
