FY 2001 NASA Budget Request: Earth Science, Human Space Flight

FYI

The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News

Number 20: February 16, 2000

FY 2001 NASA Budget Request: Earth Science, Human Space Flight

As reported in FYI #19, NASA’s budget would increase by 3.2
percent, to a total of $14,035.3 million under the FY 2001 budget
request. While Space Science and Life and Microgravity Sciences
and Applications would see growth in the ten-percent range, Earth
Science funding would drop by 2.6 percent. Funding for Human
Space Flight would increase by 0.6 percent, and within that
account, the budget for the International Space Station would be
reduced by 9.0 percent. FYI #19 provided details on the Space
Science and Life-Microgravity budget requests. Below are details
on the requests for Earth Science, and Human Space Flight.

EARTH SCIENCE REQUEST: $1,405.8 million; down 2.6 %

Earth Science                           FY 2000        FY 2001
program                                 Appropriation  Request
    (In millions)
Earth Science Total                     $1,443.4       $1,405.8
Earth Observing System (EOS)               575.4           ---
EOSDIS                                     261.9           ---
Earth Probes                               157.4           ---
Applied Res. & Data Analysis               436.5           ---
GLOBE                                        5.0           ---
Construction of Facilities                   1.0           ---
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)      6.2           ---

MAJOR DEVELOPMENT                           ---          819.5
Earth Observing System (EOS)                ---          447.1
EOSDIS                                      ---          252.0
Earth Probes (includes SRTM)                ---          120.4

RESEARCH &
TECHNOLOGY                                  ---          533.3
Earth Science Program Science               ---          353.2
Applications, Commercialization & Education ---           69.2
Technology Infusion                         ---          110.9

Mission Operations                          ---           42.7

Additional Funding for Academic
Programs                                   (7.3)          10.3

The Earth Science budget would be reduced by $37.6 million. The
budget documents state that “NASA has restructured the Earth
Science Budget in FY 2001 to display the resources being
allocated to Research and Technology requirements in a way that
can be more readily understood by NASA’s customers. As a result,
the Research and Technology requirements have been allocated into
three categories: Earth Science Program Science, Applications
Commercialization and Education (ACE) and Technology Infusion.”
The EOS missions Aqua (formerly PM-1) and Chemistry-1 “remain on
track for launch in 2000 and 2002, respectively. The EOS program
also includes several small spacecraft such as the US-French
TOPEX/Poseidon follow-on mission known as Jason-1, QuikScat,
ICESat, SORCE, and ACRIMSAT.” In addition, “currently approved
Earth Probes include the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-EP,
Triana, and the Earth System Science Pathfinder missions.”

HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT REQUEST: $5,499.9 million; up 0.6 %

Human Space Flight                      FY 2000        FY 2001
program                                 Appropriation  Request
    (In millions)
Human Space Flight Total                5,467.7        5,499.9

SPACE STATION                           2,323.1        2,114.5
Vehicle                                   890.1          442.6
Operations Capability                     763.6          826.5
Research                                  394.4          455.4
Russian Program Assurance                 200.0          300.0
Crew Return Vehicle                        75.0           90.0

SPACE SHUTTLE                           2,979.5        3,165.7

PAYLOAD & UTILIZATION
OPERATIONS                                165.1            ---

PAYLOAD & ELV
SUPPORT                                     ---           90.2

INVESTMENTS &
SUPPORT                                     ---          129.5

The International Space Station (ISS) is funded within the Office
of Space Flight. Under the FY 2001 request, funding for the
Space Station would drop by $208.6 million, or 9.0 percent, to
$2,114.5 million. NASA’s budget documents note that the ISS
budget is slated for a reduction, through F 2005, of $1.2
billion. The document adds that “roughly $0.8 billion of this
reduction is due to the movement of funding for the Phase 2
production of the ISS Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) to the Science,
Aeronautics and Technology budget account…pending a decision in
the next two years on whether to proceed with an X-38-based CRV
design…” Over the same time period, there is also “an
approximate $0.4 billion reduction in other ISS funding, largely
implemented by reduced reserves.”

The documents also report that, according to recent Russian
projections, the Russian-built Service Module “will not be
launched until Summer 2000. This delay in the SM launch is not
anticipated to affect the vehicle budget in the near-term….
Some reallocation may become necessary as we move through the
assembly sequence; the degree of impacts will be assessed over
the coming months.” In the meantime, “NASA is doing the
necessary preparations to prepare the Interim Control Module for
[a possible] launch in December 2000.”

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Audrey T. Leath
Public Information Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi@aip.org
(301) 209-3094
http://www.aip.org/enews/fyi/
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