Budgets

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FY 2002 Appropriations for the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)

(numbers are in millions)

NASA	FY 2001 Estimate	President's FY 2002 Request	FY 2002 House	FY 2002 Senate	Conference	% change FY 2001 vs. FY 2002
Science, Aeronautics & Technology	7,078	7,192	7,581	7,669	7,857	11.0%
Office of Space Science	2,625	2,786	2,759	2,790	2,849	8.5%
Sun-Earth Connections	52.5	49.1	—	54.1	62.0	18.1%
Solar-B	15.8	21.9	—	—	—	—
Living with a Star	20	40	—	20	50	150%
Office of Earth Science	1,716.0	1,515.0	no number provided	no number provided	1,573.0	-8.3%
EOS	414.3	371.9	—	—	—	—
Aura (formerly Chemistry)	99.5	80.6	—	—	—	—
EOS Follow-on	55.0	129.6	99.6	—	—	—
Academic Programs	132.7	153.7	—	—	230.8	73.9%
Education Programs	76.8	71.6	—	—	—	—
GLOBE	4.9	5.0	—	—	—	—
Minority Univ. Research & Education	55.9	82.1	—	—	—	—
TOTAL, NASA	14,285	14,511	14,926	14,561	14,790	3.5%

NOTES on conference agreement (11/7/01)

The House and Senate VA HUD conferees met earlier this week to work out their differences on the FY 2002 funding bill. They provided NASA with $14.790 billion, a 3.5% increase over FY 2001. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the final bill soon. Below are details from the conference report.

Nearly half of the 11% increase for Science, Aeronautics and Technology (SAT) is due to the transfer of Space Station research to Biological Physical Research (which resides in the SAT account). Much of the remaining increase is in earmarks.

Within the Office of Space Science

The 8.5% increase in the Office of Space Science reflects substantial increases in Sun-Earth Connections (SEC), the Living with a Star Program and $10 million in earmarks. Within SEC, Solar Probe received $3 million (it was zeroed out in the President's request) with the following directive: "NASA should consolidate management for this mission with its existing SEC/Living with a Star program in lieu of the proposed elimination." $8.9 million was provided for future solar terrestrial probes.

The conferees provided $92.1 million (the President's request) for advanced technology development related to the Next Generation Space Telescope.

Within the Office of Earth Science

Programs within Earth Science received the budget request. However, the conference report calls for a general reduction of $17.2 million within Earth Science. It is up to the discretion of NASA managment to determine what will be cut, but it is expected every program will be reduced. No specific numbers are called out for EOS or EOS Follow-on.

Within Academic Programs

The $98 million increase over FY 2001 includes $67 million worth of earmarks — a number of science discover museums are funded, and construction of a dormitory is thrown in.

NOTES on the Senate Subcommittee mark-up of the bill (7/25/01):

On July 19, the Senate VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Subcommittee approved the appropriations bill which includes funding for NASA. The Senate provides NASA a 2.0% increase over FY 2001; the House provided a 4.5% increase.

Science, Aeronautics and Technology (SAT) and the International Space Station (ISS)

The Committee is "deeply troubled by the latest major cost overrun on the ISS program [$4.8 billion]...and is deeply concerned that this mismanagement is not only a threat to the completion of the Station, but represents a grave risk to other important programs within the agency. The Committee will not accept any proposal that seeks to fund Station cost growth through offsets taken from other NASA Enterprises." The Committee stipulates that no funds may be transferred from the SAT account to the Human Space Flight account, where the space station resides.

Within Space Science Enterprise

The Committee added $5 million for focused research and technology for Sun-Earth Connections (SEC) for the Solar Probe Mission (which was not funded in the President's request).

The Senate Committee restored $20 million to SEC's Living with a Star program.

Within Earth Science Enterprise

The Committee added $7.5 million for EOS Follow-on projects "for the tropospheric (global) winds mission only, to be acquired through a commercial data purchase only. The Committee takes notable exception to NASA's refusal to abide by Congressional directive in last year's conference report directing the Agency to initiate an RFP for such a data purchase. In fact, the Committee is dismayed that NASA has allocated these funds apparently for trade studies on the subject, ignoring the compelling requirement to proceed with this mission. In a report to Congress in 1998, NOAA state, 'inadequate wind data coverage over the oceans bordering the United States has been a chronic problem that impacts accuracy potential for improved 1-5 day forecasts.' Ironically, NASA's own earth science enterprise strategy suggests that a satellite that measures winds, and can transition to an operational system for NOAA is among the highest priority in the Research Strategy."

NOTES on the House Subcommittee mark-up of the bill (7/11/01):

On July 10, the House VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Subcommittee approved the appropriations bill which includes funding for NASA. The full House Appropriations Committee will consider the bill July 17.

The House bill would provide NASA an increase of $641 million over the FY 2001 funding level of $14.285 billion and $415 million above the President's request of $14.511 billion. However, much of this increase goes to the funding of the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station ($275 million), as well as a significant number of earmarks.

Of particular note, the subcommittee directs NASA and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to provide an immediate report clarifying the rules governing the licensing of satellite technology exports under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) in a way that "allows the highly productive scientific collaborations to continue under the guidelines in place prior to 1999." This could successfully resolve a number of issues facing universities conducting research under NASA grants and contracts.

Office of Space Science:

The subcommittee provides the Office of Space Science $2.759 billion, a reduction of $27 million from the President's request. The subcommittee also makes substantial changes to the OSS request. The bill reduces the STEREO program by $10 million, reduces the New Millennium program by $10 million and cuts $20 million from the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST). Please note that these are cuts below the request, and that all are still slated to receive an increase over FY 2001. The most important fact about all three is that they are all based in Maryland, home of Senate VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski. It is very possible that the Senate will restor these programs ot the requested levels. Finally, the report transfers $10 million from the in- space propulsion program to cover the construction costs of the Propulsion Research Laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The remaining programs are then funded at the request level, including the Mars Exploration program, with the remainder of the funds going to a set of four earmarks.

Office of Earth Science:

Unfortunately, the report approved by the subcommittee neglects to identify the funding level for the Office of Earth Science. However, it does spell out a number of changes from the President's request, including a reduction of $31 million from the EOS Follow-on program and $1.8 million from the request for the information systems for the Earth Science Program Sciences. After the reduction, the EOS Follow-on program will receive $99.6 million in FY 2002, an increase of $44.6 million over the FY 2001 funding level.

NOTES on President's FY 2002 budget request (4/9/01)

Within the Space Science account, the Solar Probe mission was not considered a near-term budget priority and will not receive funding in FY 2002.

The focus for SEC mission planning and technology activities, including both Solar-Terrestrial Probes and Living With a Star programs, will be directed toward the following future missions:

• Solar-B
• STEREO
• Magnetospheric Multiscale
• Global Electrodynamics Connection
• Magnetospheric Constellation
• Solar Dynamics Observatory
• Radiation Belt Mapper and Ionospheric Mapper
• Solar Sentinel

It appears Sun-Earth Connections (SEC) went down because the TIMED Development phase has been zeroed out; its launch date is summer 2001, operations to continue beyond FY 2002. The STEREO and Solar-B missions within SEC are up.

A budget number for Living with a Star, a new program in FY 2001, is not called out in the President's request, but the program is mentioned in the narrative. The language states that the Living With a Star program "...capitalizes upon investments made in the Solar Terrestrial Probes Program in missions such as TIMED, STEREO, and Solar-B...LWS will also leverage partnerships with other federal agencies."