To support his new vision for space exploration, President Bush has
requested $16,244 million for NASA in FY 2005. This represents an increase
of $866 million, or 5.6%, over current-year funding of $15,378 million.
Programs and priorities within NASA have been reorganized to reflect
the President's vision, "which is to advance U.S. scientific, security
and economic interests through a robust space exploration program [that
is] affordable, fiscally responsible, and sustainable," said NASA
Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
According to a summary budget document of NASA's request, "NASA
will immediately begin to realign programs and organization, demonstrate
new technical capabilities, and undertake new robotic precursor missions
to the Moon and Mars before the end of the decade." As part of
the organizational changes, the former "Science, Aeronautics and
Exploration" and "Space Flight Capabilities" accounts
have been reorganized into the following two accounts: "Exploration,
Science, and Aeronautics" and "Exploration Capabilities."
The budget document explains that "Relevant elements of the Aerospace
Technology, Space Science, and Space Flight Enterprises have been transferred
to the Exploration Systems Enterprise."
A new lunar exploration initiative would be included in Space Science,
while future servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope would
be cancelled and several Beyond Einstein missions delayed. Funding for
Space Science and Biological and Physical Research would go up, while
funding for Earth Science and Education Programs would go down (in the
case of Education, due to the termination of current-year congressional
earmarks). Funding would also increase for the International Space Station,
from $1,498 million to $1,863 million.
The complete NASA budget documents can be found at www.nasa.gov/about/budget/.
A useful summary table of the FY 2005 request compared to the FY 2004
appropriation, along with funding projections out to FY 2009, is available
at
www.nasa.gov/pdf/55385main_01%20Front%20page%20Total%20Summary%20Table.pdf
Below are the percentage and dollar changes between the current year
and the FY 2005 request for selected NASA programs tracked by FYI, based
upon the new organizational structure:
EXPLORATION, SCIENCE AND AERONAUTICS:
Down 0.9% or $70.0 million, from $7,830 million to $7,760 million.
Space Science:
Up 4.2% or $167 million, from $3,971 million to $4,138 million.
Earth Science:
Down 7.9% or $128 million, from $1,613 million to $1,485 million.
Biological and Physical Research:
Up 6.5% or $64 million, from $985 million to $1,049 million.
Education Programs:
Down 25.2% or $57 million, from $226 million to $169 million.
EXPLORATION CAPABILITIES:
Up 12.4% or $935 million, from $7,521 million to $8,456 million.
Exploration Systems:
Up 8.3% or $136 million, from $1,646 million to $1,782 million.
Space Flight:
Up 13.6% or $799 million, from $5,875 million to $6,674 million.
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