Says 2005 Proposed Budget Is $16.2 Billion  

Last week, President Bush launched a new, aggressive space initiative. This week, NASA's new budget has been beefed-up in order to accomplish this lofty goal. In more specific terms, the agency's proposed budget for fiscal 2005 will be $16.2 billion, a 5.6 percent increase meant to jump-start President Bush's plan for missions to the moon and Mars.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said his agency was well-placed to begin the ambitious space exploration program, even with the shuttle fleet grounded since the Feb. 1 Columbia disaster and no clear indication for when the shuttle fleet will resume flight.

"In many ways, we're probably better positioned right now than we might have been otherwise," O'Keefe told reporters. "The accident really, really shook the foundation of this agency ... That's the perfect time, in many ways, in which to look at new directions."

O'Keefe said the $16.2 billion was 5.6 percent up from the 2004 budget of $15.4 billion, well over Bush's 4 percent cap for budget increases in areas of discretionary spending. The cap is meant to cut the national budget deficit in half in five years, but NASA, the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security are exempt from this guideline.

In future years, O'Keefe said, NASA's projected budget increases will be more modest: 4.8 percent in fiscal 2006, 4.7 percent in fiscal 2007 and 1.5 percent in fiscal 2008. Bush has already pledged an added $1 billion over the next five years for his moon-Mars initiative, and $11 billion will be channeled from other NASA programs over that same period to give a total of $12 billion to the space exploration program, O'Keefe said.

Some $6 billion previously allocated to NASA's canceled Orbital Space Plane program and a space launch initiative will go to the moon-Mars venture, O'Keefe said. Despite the problems plaguing its shuttle program, NASA is also committed to returning the three-ship shuttle fleet to flight, in order to complete a series of International Space Station construction missions. O'Keefe estimated there could be five shuttle missions a year for this work and had previously hinted the first shuttle flights may be in September.

It is interesting to note the 2005 budget proposal is set for release on Feb. 2, one day after the anniversary of Columbia's mid-air disintegration.

FMI: www.nasa.gov