CEV Development Pushed To Forefront In NASA Budget

Faced with cost overruns in the shuttle program -- combined with a promise to halve the federal deficit before he leaves office -- President Bush had two basic choices with regard to the NASA budget. He could cut back on science missions like the search for new, life-sustaining planets... or he could delay the launch of the crew exploration vehicle... designed to take man to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The choice has apparently been made. In his budget released to Congress on Monday, Mr. Bush decided not to seek out strange new worlds, but to instead boldly go where NASA has already gone before: the moon.

More specifically, funds originally planned for the SIM PlanetQuest and Terrestrial Planet Finder (above) probes -- both of which were to have been run by the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA -- have been allocated for development of NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV. In addition to being the vehicle NASA intends to use to ferry astronauts to the moon in 2018, the CEV will also replace the space shuttle when the agency retires the aging orbiters in late 2010.

The shift means the two probes -- designed to look for Earth-like planets beyond our solar system -- are now on hold.

Geoffrey Marcy, an astronomer at UC Berkeley and an investigator for SIM, told the Washington Post he was disappointed "our society can't put more resources into answering the glorious question of whether we humans are alone in this universe."

Last month, Aero-News reported that NASA's Dawn spacecraft was placed on indefinite hold following cost overruns. Now, two more missions have been grounded, in the name of freeing up funds for NASA's remaining shuttle missions and the development of the agency's next-generation manned space vehicle.

The delays don't mean JPL is completely shut out of NASA's funding structure, however. Two other programs remain on track: the Phoenix Mars lander, which is set to launch in 2007; and the Mars Science Laboratory, scheduled for a 2009 launch date.

The budget includes over $438 million to cover development of both programs -- and JPL says that's enough to keep the size of its workforce steady at around 5,000 workers for the upcoming year. The lab had to lay off about 300 workers last year, as part of an agency-wide cut.

Overall, the president allocated $16.8 billion to NASA in FY 2007 in his budget proposal to Congress. That's slightly more than we were led to believe... but it's still not enough to cover the more than $5 billion dollars in overruns on the shuttle program alone.

FMI: www.nasa.gov