FY 2005 NASA Budget Request: Selected Programs

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.