LACKING FUNDS FOR SPACE EXPLORATION

Abstract

NASA’S human space flight program is unsustainable at current levels of funding, according to a summary report released on Sept. 8 by a blueribbon panel that assessed the agency’s plans for human exploration. Changes to either NASA’s goals for exploration or its annual budget are necessary, the report says. “The Committee finds that no plan compatible with the FY 2010 budget profile permits human exploration to continue in any meaningful way,” the panel states in its 12-page summary. For a human exploration program to meet its stated goals, the panel says, NASA must receive $3 billion more per year beginning with its 2010 budget, which is set in the presidential request at $18.7 billion. “In absolute terms, it’s not that much more money,” says John M. Logsdon, an emeritus professor at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute. “But whether it is politically feasible given everything else that’s going on is a judgment” call for President ...