FY 2000 NASA Budget Request: Life/Microgravity Sciences, Space Station

As reported in FYI #21 , NASA’s FY 2000 budget request totals $13,578.4 million, a decrease of $86.6 million, or 0.6 percent, from the FY 1999 appropriation of $13,665.0 million. Within the Science, Aeronautics and Technology account, the budgets for space and Earth sciences would both increase, while Life and Microgravity sciences, and aerospace technology, would decrease. The International Space Station (ISS) account would go up by 7.7 percent to $2,482.7 million. Launch Vehicles and Payload Operations would drop by 0.6 percent to $3,155.3 million, while Mission Support would go down by 0.7 percent, to $2,494.9 million. NASA’s portion of President Clinton’s multi-agency Information Technology initiative would total $38 million.

LIFE AND MICROGRAVITY SCIENCES AND APPLICATIONS:This account would see a drop of $7.3 million, or 2.8 percent, to $256.2 million. In FY 1999, a Spacelab mission with ISS precursor science experiments was flown on the shuttle; another is scheduled for calendar year 2000. These missions, according to NASA budget documentation, “provide a transition between Russian Mir Space Station and Spacelab and the onset of significant research capability on-board the ISS.... In FY 2000, a new era in research will begin with the launch of the U.S. laboratory module for the ISS. The U.S. Laboratory module will allow initial Life and Microgravity hardware and experiments to be established aboard the ISS.”

Life/Microgravity S&A FY 1999 FY 2000 program Appropriation Request (In millions) Life/Microgravity S&A Total $263.5 $256.2 Advanced Human Support Technology 24.5 29.2 Biomedical Research & Countermeasures 59.7 53.0 Gravitational Biology & Ecology 40.9 38.6 Microgravity Research 113.7 111.4 Space Products Development 15.4 14.4 Space Medicine 6.7 7.1 Occupational Health 0.9 1.1 Mission Integration 1.7 1.4 INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION:The space station account would go up by $178.0 million, or 7.7 percent, to $2,482.7 million. Assembly of the space station was begun late last year, and is expected to continue into 2004. NASA budget documents state that “plans are to begin development of a U.S. built propulsion capability to mitigate the risk of potential shortfalls of the Russian system, and to provide a more robust reboost and control function for the ISS.” According to the text of his February 1 budget briefing, NASA head Dan Goldin stated, “we have the necessary resources to meet the current challenges of Space Station. Last year, we made a strategic decision to assist our Russian partners in the near-term to facilitate their completion of essential Station components, such as the Service Module. We also decided to move forward to mitigate adverse impacts on the Station’s operations if they can’t meet their commitments for supplying propellant and dry goods. We covered the FY 1998 and FY 1999 impacts, and asked the Administration for assistance in covering FY 2000 and future year costs.”

Space Station FY 1999 FY 2000 program Appropriation Request (In millions) Space Station Total $2,304.7 2,482.7 Vehicle 1,034.0 890.1 Operations Capability 685.9 850.2 (Construction of Facilities included) [1.2] 0.0 Research 336.5 394.4 Russian Program Assurance 248.3 200.0 Crew Return Vehicle 0.0 148.0 This year, for the first time, the Space Station and the Space Shuttle are separated into different accounts. Shuttle funding now falls under the Launch Vehicles and Payload Operations account, which would go down slightly (by 0.6 percent) to $3,155.3 million.