NASA Budget Guts Aeronautic Research To Support Space
NASA is the "National Aeronautics
and Space Administration," and ex-director Sean O'Keefe was fond of
saying that he wasn't going to forget the first "A". But the new
NASA budget strips resources from aeronautics programs in order to
fund the two bottomless appetites of the space program: the
shuttle's return to flight, and the International Space
Station.
In the last round of cuts, in 2003, O'Keefe was a strong
proponent of retaining the four basic and applied aeronautic
research centers that NASA inherited from the earlier National
Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. Those centers are: Ames Research
Center at Northern California's Moffett Field, Dryden Flight
Research Center at Edwards AFB in the Mojave Desert, Langley
Research Center in Hampton, VA, and Glenn Research Center at Lewis
Field in Cleveland, OH.
If these cuts make it through Congress -- far from certain, as
home-state legislators see NASA as a jobs program, and are expected
to oppose cuts in their districts -- Langley Research Center will
lay off some 1,000 of its roughly 3,900 people. The layoffs have
already started, with 500 technicians and 150 employees of
contractor Jacobs Sverdrup being put on notice.
The budget cuts almost 40% of
Langley's wind tunnel work in 2006, with slightly larger cuts
projected for 2007. Langley is already trying to demolish
facilities, including several historic buildings and a historic
1929 full-scale wind tunnel now managed by Old Dominion University.
The only thing special about Langley, as opposed to any other
laboratory, is its twenty-odd wind tunnels. Wind tunnels were
constructed as soon as the center was opened in 1917; These wind
tunnels were used for much of the seminal NACA research of the
1920s and 30s, and for the tests that led to the 1940s and 1950s
X-Planes.
The basic research done at Langley ultimately finds its way into
civil and military aircraft -- but because it can take 20 years for
a concept to make it from research paper to test flight, this
research can't be replaced by private industry or universities. For
example, advanced concepts that were Langley research projects in
the 50s, 60s and 70s, to include the externally blown flap, the
supercritical wing, and fly-by-wire controls, are key selling
points in the Boeing C-17 Globemaster, in production now for the
USAF. Civil aviation has also benefited from basic research into
such advanced aerodynamics, not to mention spin studies (Langley
has a rare spin tunnel), wind shear, and wake-vortex hazards. The
developments in crashworthiness written into the latest amendments
to FAR 23 and FAR 25, and incorporated into new aircraft like the
Cirrus and the Gippsland Airvan, began with research at
Langley.
The cuts may end Langley, but the cuts don't end at Langley by
any means. Glenn in Cleveland is slated to lose 4 wind tunnels and
other facilities related to powerplant research, some 650 jobs (of
about 2,000) and will take a $130 million budget cut. One of the
targeted facilities is the only full-size wind tunnel in the nation
where certain engines can be ignited.
Even Dryden, the second smallest of NASA's centers, will lose
about 40 jobs. (Much Dryden work is related to the Space
Shuttle).
All the jobs eliminated agency-wide relate to aeronautical
research. There are no job cuts in space research, and there appear
to be none in the sprawling headquarters bureaucracy.
Contrary to some media reports, the overall NASA budget was not
cut. Instead, it was not increased as much as NASA expected. NASA's
proposed budget of $16.45 billion is 2.4 percent increased over the
2005 budget. NASA, however, was counting on another $547 million.
On top of that, continued cost overruns in the space shuttle
return-to-flight and the International Space Station squeeze
everything else in the budget.
Along with the four legacy aeronautical centers, NASA operates
two manned space flight centers, Kennedy in Florida and Johnson in
Houston, two that are primarily concerned with rocket propulsion,
the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, and the Stennis
Space Flight Center in Hancock County, MS, and two that focus on
astronomy and unmanned space missions: Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is
managed under contract by CalTech in Pasadena.