The Washington DC-based National Space Society (NSS) announced its support of the 2014 Senate Authorization bill for NASA over the House version, which contains substantial cuts to the NASA budget. Dr. Paul Werbos, Chair of the NSS Policy Committee, said “The future of humans in space, as well as NASA itself, is very much at stake and at risk in current Congressional discussion.” In particular, NSS urges full budgetary support for the following program elements:
– Commercial Crew
– Proposed Asteroid Return Mission
– Space Technology Program
– Earth Science
– Space Act Agreements
– Reusable launch vehicle research
– Exoplanet studies
The House NASA authorization bill singles out Earth science for heavy cuts, which should be reversed. Also, continuing a pattern from the previous year, the House bill fails to fund Commercial Crew at the level requested by NASA and the Administration, virtually assuring that the US will continue to rely on Russian spacecraft for access to the International Space Station. In addition, NSS urges Congress to make new investments in reusable launch vehicles and space solar power in such a fashion that they can be included in the Kalam initiative. Details on the Kalam initiative can be found here. The entire NSS position paper can be found here.
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About the National Space Society: NSS is an independent, educational, membership, non-profit organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen’s voice on space, with thousands of members and supporters, and over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world. The Society publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space. To learn more, visit www.nss.org
