| NEWS (April 6, 2006): Congressman Boehlert urges
restoration of NASA Research and Analysis Funds in testimony
before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, State,
Justice and Commerce and Related Agencies. |
NEWS (April 6, 2006): Congressman
Boehlert urges restoration of NASA Research and Analysis Funds in
testimony
before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, State,
Justice and Commerce and Related Agencies.
APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS UNDERWAY:
Congress
is holding hearings on the proposed FY07 NASA budget and has yet to
approve the Initial FY06 NASA Operating Plan.
Congress needs to be informed about the slashing of NASA
Research and Analysis programs - 25% over 2006 and 2007. NASA
should be directed to restore R&A funds cut in the Initial FY06
Operating Plan, and Congress should restore the cuts proposed for
R&A in the FY2007 budget proposal. The money will not stay
there, however, unless NASA is barred from transferring funds out
of Space Science.
IMPORTANT DATES COMING UP:
APRIL
26 - Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and
Science Hearing: NASA FY07 Budget Request
May 3-4 - First meeting of the NASA science advisory subcommittees
in College Park, MD. This meeting is open to the public - attend if
you can.
WHAT NASA IS DOING AND WHY
NASA is
continuing to cut R&A programs 15% retroactively in FY06 and an
additional 15% in FY07, with Astrobiology being cut 50%. "Because
there will be fewer missions within SMD, a larger body of advanced
research and development to prepare for future missions will not be
required."
Mary Cleave, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission
Directorate, in a letter to the science community, March 6, 2006.
FULL
TEXT (PDF), and ENCLOSURE
(PDF). See also NASA notice posted on NSPIRES, April 4, 2006.
TEXT
WHY THIS MAKES NO SENSE
"Science capability cannot be maintained when support for
research shrinks. Cutting science research necessarily results in
the loss of primarily young scientists and the degradation of
sub-disciplines, from which we cannot bounce back quickly. This
position ensures whatever missions we do in the future will reflect
a decreased capability. Such missions will be more limited, less
cost-effective, and return less science." Mark Sykes and Heidi
Hammel in Space
News Commentary (TBP Monday, March 27).
NASA Research and Analysis funds (excepting instrument development
programs) have been at most flat in constant dollars this decade,
whereas between 2001 and 2005 mission data more than doubled and
between 2005 and 2008 mission data is expected to increase more
than five-fold. R&A is not keeping up and a rapidly increasing
amount of tax-payer funded data is not even being looked at. Fewer
missions does not mean less work that is needed to be done. NASA is
also cutting the Planetary Data System, which is simply bizarre -
future missions are being identified whose data will not be
archived.
Why
are Planetary Research Programs Critical to Solar System
Exploration?
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND
LINKS