From: rsherme@diamond.nswc.navy.mil (Russel Shermer (R43))
Newsgroups: sci.research
Subject: fyi #155: GAO Report Warns of NASA Budget Concerns
Keywords: science, legislation, research, nasa.
Date: 11 Dec 92 20:46:18 GMT
Reply-To: rsherme@chaos.nswc.navy.mil
Organization: NAVSWC DD White Oak Det. R43

Posted for:
Public Information Division
American Institute of Physics
Contact:  Audrey T. Leath
Phone: (202) 332-9662
Email: fyi@aip.org



GAO Report Warns of NASA Budget Concerns

FYI No. 155, December 11, 1992

When he takes the Office of Vice President next month, Sen. Al Gore
(D-Tennessee) will also step into the chairmanship of the National
Space Council.  He brings to this position knowledge of the
nation's space program, gained as chairman of the Senate Commerce
Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space.

One troublesome issue for NASA that has caught Gore's attention is
that NASA's large programs are projected to require greater funding
than current budget realities allow.  This concern is addressed in
a September report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), entitled
"NASA-- Large Programs May Consume Increasing Share of Limited
Future Budgets."  The report was requested by Gore and Rep. Richard
Durbin (D-Illinois), chair of the House Budget Committee's Task
Force on Defense, Foreign Policy and Space.  The GAO notes that
current NASA administrator, Daniel Goldin, "has stated that the
development of a new NASA strategic plan that matches specific
program goals with realistic budgets is one of his highest
priorities."

GAO warns that "NASA's largest programs are contributing to an
increasing bow wave of future funding requirements that may require
nearly all of NASA's potential appropriation by fiscal year 1997."
These programs include the space shuttle; Space Station Freedom;
network, communications and data systems; EOS; the New Launch
System; the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility; Cassini; NASP;
the Space Exploration Initiative; and the Advanced Solid Rocket
Motor.

As an illustration, GAO states that "in fiscal year 1992, NASA
requested $15.7 billion and received $14.4 billion.  Under this
lesser amount, the space station program was fully funded, but
virtually every other NASA activity was cut.  Space science,
technology, the Space Exploration Initiative, and the space shuttle
programs all had to absorb a portion of the $1.3 billion shortfall.
For example, two planetary missions-- the Cassini probe to study
Saturn and the Comet Rendezvous/Asteroid Flyby mission-- and the
third of four "Great Observatories" (the Advanced X-Ray
Astrophysics Facility) were all delayed by one year, and other
space science projects were essentially canceled, including the
fourth Great Observatory (Space Infrared Telescope Facility.)
Ultimately, citing a constrained budget, NASA decided to cancel the
Comet Rendezvous/Asteroid Flyby mission and the Shuttle Test of
Relativity Experiment in its fiscal year 1993 budget request."

Goldin, whom experts give about even chances of remaining as head
of NASA under the Clinton Administration, has acted aggressively in
his 9 months in the job to ameliorate these concerns.  To free up
some funds, he has asked the agency to pare costs all program costs
by at least 15%, and is expected to ask for another 15%.  Speaking
to the Space Science and Applications Advisory Committee on
November 5, he said "the new President-elect has some enormous
problems ahead of him.  We in NASA have to look within ourselves
for the money."


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Public Information Division
American Institute of Physics
Contact:  Audrey T. Leath
(202) 332-9662
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