OMB FACT SHEET

Funding Highlights:

• Provides $18.7 billion, the same amount the agency received in 2010. Funding focuses on areas that will improve the Nation’s space capabilities, strengthen our competitive edge, and prepare the next generation of leaders in the field. The Budget also proposes to streamline operations and boost efficiencies at facilities.

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UPDATED – 1:38 p.m. PST

NASA would spend $4.25 billion on its Commercial Crew Development (CCDEV) program during the next five years under President Barack Obama’s proposed FY 2012 budget plan. The Administration has proposed spending $850 annually for FY2012-2016 on the program, which is designed to field commercial rockets and spacecraft to carry crew and cargo to and from Earth orbit.

During that same period, NASA would spend 14.051 billion on its Orion capsule and a heavy-lift vehicle. The plan is spend $2.81 billion annually on those programs, which are designed to give NASA the capability to perform orbital and deep-space missions.

The Administration’s CCDev plan was praised by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation in a press release this morning.

CSF President Bretton Alexander stated, “In this constrained fiscal environment, commercial spaceflight is more important than ever. NASA’s Commercial Crew program will result in significant savings to the US taxpayer, and will cut the amount of money the nation has been sending to Russia every year. Leveraging private investment is the only way NASA can make its dollars go farther in these times of belt-tightening.”

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The House has proposed sharp cuts in NASA.  The reductions total either $303 million, $508.7 million or $578.8 million depending upon which budget figures you use. The chart below, based on House and Senate documents, lays it all out.

NASA Budget Reductions
(in Millions of Dollars)

The columns are:

• 2010 Actual: NASA’s 2010 budget
• 2011 PRB: President Barack Obama’s budget request (PBR)
• 2011 Senate App: Senate’s proposed NASA appropriations bill based on 2011 authorization bill (appropriations bill abandoned in December)
• 2011 CR: House’s proposed continuing resolution (CR) for NASA’s 2011 funding
• Diff 2010 Actual/2011 CR: Difference between NASA’s 2010 budget and House 2011 CR
• Diff 2011 PBR/2011 CR: Difference between President Obama’s request and House 2011 CR
• Diff 2011 Senate App/2011 CR: Difference between Senate appropriations bill and House 2011 CR

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Asteroid Ida

International Symposium on Asteroid Mitigation and Exploration
Texas A&M University — College Station
April 4-6, 2011
https://aeweb.tamu.edu/isam/index.php

The International Symposium on Asteroid Mitigation and Exploration, to be held in College Station, Texas, will bring together an international community of researchers and practitioners to discuss new research results, mitigation and exploration strategies, international collaboration, and public awareness. In additional to presentations from attendees, a round table will be held to discuss future international cooperation, public awareness, and public policy statements.

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Governor Susana Martinez issued the following statement following Senator Harrison Schmitt’s decision to withdraw his nomination to serve as the State’s Secretary of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources: “Senator Schmitt is a former NASA astronaut who underwent a complete background check by the Department of Public Safety as part of his nomination process. “Senator Schmitt was willing to allow a private investigator access to his personal information, but he was […]

ISRO announces new moon mission with US’ Jet Propulsion Lab DNA The Space Commission, India’s apex space policy body, today gave ISRO the go-ahead to partner with JPL, which has sent missions to Mars and Venus, for the project names ‘Moon Rise’ which could be launched by NASA. ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has invited proposals under its New Frontiers Programme announced in […]

Space Tourism Industry Plus 10 Evening reception, dinner and program April 28, 2011 West Los Angeles On April 28, 2001 Dennis Tito rocketed into Earth orbit as the first private space traveler. Today, six other pioneering private space travelers have voyaged off-world (and one flew twice). The Space Tourism Society (STS) is hosting this exciting anniversary. Mr. Tito will be our honored guest. We will also be honoring the pioneering […]

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

An update from Jack Kennedy on space-related bills making their way through the Virginia Legislature:

1)  Senate Bill 1447 – Senator William Wampler – Passed Senate 40-0 Passed House Finance Subcommittee #1 11-1 –Most likely On Full Committee Docket for 2-14-2011 Corporate tax revenues generated by commercial spaceflight; Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.  Credits to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority the portion of corporate income tax collected from corporations attributable to the sale of commercial human spaceflights and spaceflight training. The credit to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority begins on July 1, 2010, and lasts through fiscal year 2015.
https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?111+sum+SB1447

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ATK’s video promo for its Liberty rocket proposal.

A Colorado company whose new bio-fuel would power Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo on suborbital flights has gone public. Gevo sold 7.15 million shares at $15 each, with the stock’s value shooting up 16 percent during the first day of trading on NASDAQ.

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Gamesutra reports that millionaut Richard Garriott is assisting John Carmack and Armadillo Aerospace in its efforts to develop a human suborbital business: As far as the future of space travel, Garriott sees it coming from the private sector, notably John Carmack of id Software, with his company Armadillo Aerospace. “His next stage is to be able to send people into space on a vertical takeoff vertical landing orbit,” said Garriott, […]

The Lockheed Martin Orion team at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., inspects the Orion crew module ground test structure prior to shipping. Photo credit: NASA

LOCKHEED MARTIN PRESS RELEASE

The Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) Orion team shipped out the first Orion crew module spacecraft structure today from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. The spacecraft is headed to Lockheed Martin’s Denver, Colo. facilities where it will undergo a series of rigorous tests to confirm Orion’s ability to safely fly astronauts through all the harsh environments of deep space exploration missions.
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