posted 02-12-2018 10:44 AM               

For NASA, the highlights are as follows:

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is responsible for leading an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and bring new knowledge and opportunities back to Earth. As it pioneers the space frontier, NASA supports growth of the Nation's economy in space, increases understanding of the universe and our place in it, works with industry to improve America's aerospace technologies, and advances American leadership.

• The Budget supports the Administration's new space exploration policy by refocusing existing NASA activities toward exploration, by redirecting funding to innovative new programs that support the new policy, and by providing additional funding to support new public-private initiatives.

• The Budget requests a total of $19.6 billion for NASA, a $500 million (2.6-percent) increase from the 2018 Budget ($61 million below NASA's 2017 funding level).

• The Budget proposes to end direct U.S. Government funding for the space station by 2025 and provides $150 million to begin a program that would encourage commercial development of capabilities that NASA can use in its place.

• The Budget refocuses and consolidates NASA's space technology development programs to support space exploration activities.

• The Budget continues strong programs in science and aeronautics, including a supersonic "X-plane," planetary defense from hazardous asteroids, and potentially a bold mission to retrieve pieces of Mars for scientific study on Earth.

The Budget supports an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations. As it pioneers the space frontier, NASA supports growth of the Nation's space economy, increases understanding of the universe and America's place in it, and advances America's aerospace technology.

The Budget takes concrete actions to once again launch Americans into space from American soil. The Budget partners with industry to land robotic missions on the surface of the Moon in the next few years, paving the way for a return of U.S. astronauts — this time not just to visit, but to lay the foundation for further journeys of exploration and the expansion of the U.S. economy into space. The Budget supports a sustainable space exploration program to be proud of — one that reflects American ingenuity, ambition, and leadership. Specifically, the Budget:

• Renews Focus on Human Exploration and Discovery and Expands Commercial Partnerships to Strengthen U.S. Leadership in Space.

  The Budget provides $10 billion to support human space exploration and to pursue a campaign that would establish U.S. preeminence to, around, and on the Moon.

  This would be achieved through a renewed focus on new approaches and industrial partners, and by pursuing near-term milestones for lunar exploration, such as the commercial launch of a key power and propulsion space tug in 2022. A new lunar robotic exploration program would support innovative approaches to achieve human and science exploration goals. This new program would fund contracts for transportation services and the development of small rovers and instruments to meet lunar science and exploration needs.

  The Budget also supports the creation of a new Exploration Research and Technology program to enable lower-cost technology and systems needed to sustainably return humans to the Moon and beyond.

  In addition, the Budget fully funds the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule as key elements of the human space exploration program. The Budget provides $3.7 billion for SLS and Orion, which would keep the programs on track for a test launch by 2020 and a first crewed launch around the Moon by 2023.

• Provides Cost Savings by Phasing out Government Programs and Replacing them with Commercial or Public-Private Operations.

  The Budget proposes to end direct U.S. nancial support for the International Space Station in 2025, after which NASA would rely on commercial partners for its low Earth orbit research and technology demonstration requirements. A new $150 million program would begin support for commercial partners to encourage development of capabilities that the private sector and NASA can use.

  The Budget also proposes a transition away from NASA's current Government-owned and operated eet of communications satellites and associated ground stations. Instead, the Budget proposes a greater reliance on commercial communications satellite capabilities.

  The Budget also proposes canceling, pending an independent review, an over-budget project to upgrade the current NASA-owned system in order to make resources available for these new partnerships.

• Continues Robotic Exploration of the Solar System.

  The Budget provides $2.2 billion to Planetary Science and maintains support for competed science missions and the next Mars rover, which would launch in 2020. The Budget also provides $50 million to explore possibilities for retrieving geologic samples from Mars, which has long been a high priority science goal and a keystone of future Mars exploration.

  A $150 million planetary defense program would help protect the Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids.

• Fully Funds an Experimental Supersonic Airplane and Increases Hypersonics Research Funding.

  The Budget fully funds the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, an experimental supersonic (faster than the speed of sound) airplane that would make its first flight in 2021. This "X-plane" would open a new market for U.S. companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half.

  The Budget also increases funding for research on flight at speeds more than five times the speed of sound, commonly referred to as hypersonics. Hypersonics research is critical to understanding how crewed and robotic spacecraft can safely enter and exit the atmospheres of planets. Hypersonics also has applications for national defense.

• Supports a Focused Earth Science Program.

  The Budget provides $1.8 billion for a focused, balanced Earth Science portfolio that supports the priorities of the science and applications communities. The Budget maintains the Nation's 45-year record of space-based land imagery by funding Landsat 9 and a Sustainable Land Imaging program. The Budget maintains the Administration's previous termination of five Earth Science missions — PACE, OCO-3, RBI, DSCOVR Earth-viewing instruments, and CLARREO Pathfinder — to achieve savings.

• Terminates a New Space Telescope while Increasing Support for other Astrophysics Priorities.

  The Budget terminates development of the WFIRST space telescope, which was not executable within its previous budget and would have required a significant funding increase in 2019 and future years. The Budget redirects funding from this mission to competed research including smaller, principal-investigator-led astrophysics missions. These missions have a history of providing high scientific impact while training the next generation of scientists and engineers.

  The Budget continues to fund the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to launch in 2019 and operate for many years to come.

• Redirects Education Funding to Higher Priorities.

  The Budget continues to support the termination of the $100 million Office of Education, redirecting those funds to NASA's core mission of exploration. The Science Activation program within the Science Mission Directorate — a focused, science-driven program with clear objectives, evaluation strategies, and strong partnerships — is retained.

• Supports the Technology Demonstration of In-Space Robotic Manufacturing and Assembly.

  The Budget provides $54.2 million for public-private partnerships to demonstrate new technologies used to build large structures in a space environment. Such structures could be key to supporting future exploration and commercial space activities.

posted 02-12-2018 12:19 PM               

NASA Acting Administrator Statement on Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Proposal

The following is a statement from acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot on the Fiscal Year 2019 agency budget proposal:

"It is my privilege today to present President Trump's Fiscal Year 2019 budget request of $19.9 billion for NASA. It reflects the administration's confidence that through NASA leadership, America will lead the way back to the Moon and take the next giant leap from where we made that first small step nearly 50 years ago.

"This budget focuses NASA on its core exploration mission and reinforces the many ways that we return value to the U.S. through knowledge and discoveries, strengthening our economy and security, deepening partnerships with other nations, providing solutions to tough problems, and inspiring the next generation. It places NASA and the U.S. once again at the forefront of leading a global effort to advance humanity's future in space, and draws on our nation's great industrial base and capacity for innovation and exploration.

"This proposal provides a renewed focus to our human spaceflight activities and expands our commercial and international partnerships, while also continuing our pursuit of cutting-edge science and aeronautics breakthroughs at the core of our mission.

"This budget codifies the president's Space Policy Directive-1, which charges us to 'lead an innovative and sustainable campaign of exploration that will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and use followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.'

"In short, we are once again on a path to return to the Moon with an eye toward Mars. NASA is called to refocus existing activities towards exploration, by redirecting funding to innovative new programs and support for new public-private initiatives. We are leveraging multiple partners both here at home and internationally in developing a sustainable approach where the Moon is simply one step on our truly ambitious long term journey to reach out farther into the solar system to reap the economic, societal, and expanding knowledge benefits such an endeavor will bring.

"We've used the International Space Station (ISS) as the cornerstone for pushing human presence farther into space, with a horizon goal of humans to Mars. This includes learning about the human physiology of spaceflight and enabling new industry partners to bring to bear their capabilities and emerge as leaders in their own right to help us on this journey. The commercial cargo and crew work continues through the life of the International Space Station in the budget. Further, this budget proposes for NASA to ramp up efforts to transition low-Earth activities to the commercial sector, and end direct federal government support of the ISS in 2025 and begin relying on commercial partners for our low-Earth orbit research and technology demonstration requirements.

"This budget also proposes we develop new opportunities on and around the Moon. We will begin to build the in-space infrastructure for long-term exploration development of our nearest neighbor by launching the power and propulsion element to orbit the Moon as the foundation of a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. This will give us a strategic presence in the lunar vicinity that will drive our activity with commercial and international partners and help us further explore the Moon and its resources and translate that experience toward human missions to Mars.

"Further, drawing on the interests and capabilities of our industry and international partners, we'll develop progressively complex robotic missions to the surface of the Moon with scientific and exploration objectives in advance of human return there.

"As before, the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft are critical backbone elements for this effort and for moving farther into deep space. Their momentum continues this year toward the first integrated launch of the system in fiscal year 2020 around the Moon and a mission with crew in 2023.

"Technology drives exploration, both human and robotic, and helps us solve problems in space and on Earth. We will focus on applications of technology toward deep space exploration, and innovative ways to further our goals from concept to testing and flight.

"The agency also will realign our organizational structure to best meet this new exploration focus. I've asked Space Technology Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk to lead an effort to design the new organizational approach.

"Our wide ranging science work also is enabled on many fronts in this budget, and it will continue to lead the world in its size, scope, and scientific output.

"NASA science increases understanding of our planet and our place in the universe, pursues civilization-level discoveries, such as whether there is life elsewhere in the universe, and scouts for knowledge to inform future human advancement into space. Our robust scientific activity will include missions to Mars; lunar surface missions that leverage commercial capabilities; diverse Earth and planetary missions; and spacecraft to study the Sun and how it influences the very nature of space. Powerful observatories will study other solar systems and their planets and peer back to the dawn of time through other galaxies. One hard decision we had to make was the proposed cancellation of the WFIRST mission in astrophysics and to redirect those resources to other agency priorities.

"NASA's work has always strengthened our security and the economy, and our ongoing research and testing of new aeronautics technologies is critical in these areas. It will help us lead the world in a global aviation economy with increasing benefits worldwide. Commercial supersonic flight, unmanned aviation systems, advanced hypersonics technologies, and the next generation of aircraft are some of the critical focuses of this important program for our nation under this budget.

"While the budget does not provide funding for an Office of Education, NASA's mission successes will continue to inspire the next generation to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies, join us on our journey of discovery, and become the diverse workforce we'll need for tomorrow's critical aerospace careers. We will use every opportunity to engage learners in our work and the many ways it encourages educators, students, and the public to continue making their own discoveries.

"This budget also funds ongoing operations of NASA centers and ensures core services are optimized to achieve a safe and healthy workplace. It also strengthens cybersecurity capabilities by safeguarding critical data and systems.

"We can't do everything, and as always, we've had to make hard choices, but we will continue to forge new paths and partnerships that strengthen our industrial base and our engagement with other nations to achieve challenging goals that advance our capabilities and increase our security and economic strength.

"NASA will continue to deliver on the promise of U.S. ingenuity and proven leadership in space."