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As Prepared

STATE OF NASA REMARKS

ACTING ADMINISTRATOR ROBERT LIGHTFOOT

Feb. 12, 2017

Thank you Todd. It is always great to be back here at Marshall. I 

appreciate your leadership of Marshall and the continued 

engagement by you and the rest of the Agency leadership team, 

who have been so valuable to me during this past year in helping 

lead this great Agency. 

To everyone here in the room and tuned in at the Centers, I thank 

YOU for being here today. I remain truly amazed at what you 
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accomplish each day, and it is simply humbling to lead this team –

AND the best place to work in government for large agencies for 

SIX STRAIGHT YEARS!

Today, I am pleased to present the highlights of the proposed 

2019 budget for NASA. The President’s budget request for Fiscal 

Year 2019 released today provides $19.9 billion for NASA. It 

reflects the Administration’s confidence that America will lead the 

way back to the Moon and take the next giant leap from where we 

made that first small step for humanity nearly 50 years ago.
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This budget focuses NASA on its core exploration mission and 

reinforces the many ways that we return value to the American 

people through knowledge and discoveries, strengthening our 

economy and security, deepening partnerships with other nations, 

providing solutions to tough problems and inspiring the next 

generation. This budget places NASA and the U.S. once again at 

the forefront of leading a global effort to advance humanity’s 

future in space, and draws on our nation’s great industrial base 

and capacity for innovation and exploration to raise the bar of 

human potential and improve life across the globe.
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This proposal provides a renewed focus to our human spaceflight 

activities and expands our commercial and international 

partnerships, and continues our pursuit of cutting edge science 

and aeronautics breakthroughs at the core of our mission. 

In addition to providing continuity in most of our mission areas, 

there are two new distinct areas of focus specifically around 

exploration – establishment of a lunar exploration campaign and 

an innovative approach to accelerate the growth of a low Earth 

economy.
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But before I go into the details of the budget proposal, I want to

share how we got to this point, specifically related to these 

exploration efforts and the overall implications to the Agency 

going forward. 

This budget is the culmination of a lot of work over roughly the 

past two years by the NASA team establishing key components of 

NASA’s role, not only in the government, but in the world. 

I want to thank Andrew Hunter and the CFO/RMO team in the 

Agency for the tremendous effort on this complex budget. 
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Andrew has been “acting” just as long as I have, and I can tell you 

he has been doing a whole lot more than “acting” during this past 

year. Thank you, Andrew!

Now to how we reached this point. We spent a year getting ready 

for the transition to a new Administration asking the fundamental 

question of “why” NASA and what does that “N” or National in our 

name really mean? We looked at law, policy, and history that 

capture and define our enduring purpose to Discover, Explore, 

and Develop. 
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That effort created the following tenets that we shared with the 

new Administration, and as you will see, these tenets are woven 

throughout this budget. Those tenets are:

• Maintaining and expanding U.S. global leadership in space 

and aeronautics to support national interests, the industrial 

base, and global influence

• Expanding human knowledge through new scientific 

discoveries 

• Extending continuous U.S. presence deeper into space 

• Addressing societal challenges and catalyzing economic 

growth
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• And inspiring a Nation with what we can do, not dwelling on 

what we can’t

We used these tenets working with the Administration to shape

NASA’s important thread in the fabric of this Nation. 

The next big step was the re-establishment of the National Space 

Council chaired by Vice President Mike Pence. In the first meeting 

of the council in over 25 years, I was given 45 days to develop a 

Nationally focused study to have NASA lead:
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“An innovative and sustainable campaign of exploration that will 

lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration 

and use followed by human missions to Mars and other 

destinations.”

This study would become the backbone for the Exploration 

Campaign called out in Space Policy Directive 1 signed by the 

President and, as I will explain, codified in the 2019 budget. 

While this directive created a renewed focused on a return to the 

Moon, we had to address many familiar areas. 
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As most of you know, we’ve used the International Space Station 

as the jumping off point or cornerstone for pushing human 

presence further into space, with a horizon goal of humans to 

Mars. This includes learning about the human physiology of 

spaceflight and demonstrating new technologies for systems we 

will need for further transportation and enabling new industry 

partners to bring to bear their capabilities and emerge as leaders 

in their own right to help us on this journey.

You also may remember we have been saying we needed to 

establish a presence in the area around Moon to prepare for such 
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a journey. This became our central focus for planning what we 

are going to do around the Moon in the decade of the 2020’s. 

In many ways, the work in the decade of the 2020’s, in the area 

around the moon, needed clearer goals and objectives. We also 

needed to look at how we are going to do this with a good 

balance of NASA, Industry, and International partners 

participating in this effort. The Administration’s direction ties to a 

growing recognition of the strategic and economic opportunities 

that the expansion beyond the Earth’s orbit represents.
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In short, we are once again on a path to return to the Moon with 

an eye toward Mars. This time we are leveraging the multiple 

partners both here at home and internationally in developing a 

sustainable approach where the Moon is simply one step on our 

truly ambitious long term journey to reach out farther into the 

Solar System to reap the economic, societal, and expanding 

knowledge benefits such an endeavor will bring.

That’s where the 45 day study for the NSpC provided us with a 

platform to clarify and coordinate our plans for exploration at the 

Moon with the Administration. I believe you will see the 
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clarification of those objectives in the details of this budget as I lay 

them out.

I must add here that the seamless alignment across technology, 

human exploration, science, aeronautics, and mission support

between Steve Jurczyk, Thomas Zurbuchen, Bill Gerstenmaier,

Jaiwon Shin and Dan Tenney is simply unprecedented and is 

what has made the details in this budget possible. With Tom 

Cremins helping pull all of that together, their leadership and 

commitment to develop a very integrated set of mission objectives 

TOGETHER has been impressive. As the chair of the Agency 

Executive Council where these budget decisions ultimately reside, 
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I am very fortunate to have the advice and counsel of fellow 

council members Gale Allen, Douglas Terrier, and of course my 

deputy Krista Paquin. 

So, let’s dive in to the details. 

I will start with Exploration since the direction and priority is clear:

“to refocus existing NASA activities towards exploration, by 

redirecting funding to innovative new programs and support for 

new public-private initiatives.”
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Exploration

For exploration, NASA’s budget proposes $10.5B with a primary 

focus on three areas for our Exploration Campaign – Lunar and 

Deep Space, Low Earth Orbit Commercialization, and Exploration 

Research and Technology. 

LUNAR CAMPAIGN

Drawing on the interests and capabilities of our industry and 

international partners, we’ll develop progressively complex robotic 

missions to the surface of the Moon with scientific and exploration 

objectives in advance of human return there. 
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The Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft are critical 

backbone elements of our future in deep space. Their momentum 

continues this year toward the first integrated launch of the 

system in fiscal year 2020 around the Moon and a mission with 

crew in 2023. 

 

SLS core stage hardware is completing manufacturing and 

preparing to be structurally tested here at MSFC. The large test 

facilities now dot the horizon as you head into the center and the 

teams here are ready to go!
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Orion, led by the team at Johnson Space Center, continues to 

make great progress at Kennedy Space Center as it really hits its 

stride with the large amounts of testing over the next year. 

The test team at Stennis is preparing for the integrated test of the 

SLS core with fours RS-25’s. And, the ground systems team at 

Kennedy is preparing to receive all the hardware while preparing 

the mobile launcher, VAB, and launch control software. It’s an 

exciting time, with the most development and testing since we’ve 

seen since before the first Space Shuttle flight. 

In orbit around the Moon, we also will begin to build the in-space 

infrastructure for long-term exploration development of our 
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nearest neighbor by launching the power and propulsion element 

in 2022 to orbit the Moon as the foundation of a Lunar Orbital 

Platform-Gateway. 

This will give us a strategic presence in the lunar vicinity that will 

drive our activity with commercial and international partners and 

help us further explore the Moon and its resources and translate 

that experience toward human missions to Mars. 

We are seeing an expanding set of investments and capabilities 

that can complement, leverage, and build greater opportunities as 

we pursue our exploration objectives. There is no greater 
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evidence of that than the Falcon Heavy launch last week and the 

progress being made by many industry partners that will become 

part of this journey.

LEO COMMERCIALIZATION

The next area of focus in exploration will be the activities in Low 

Earth Orbit. While we head to moon and ultimately to Mars, we 

need to be able to look back and see a vibrant low Earth orbit 

economy spurred by the work we have done and enabled to date 

on the ISS. 
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As such, this budget proposes to stimulate commercial industry 

opportunities in low earth orbit, providing an off ramp for 

government led operations. 

We’ll ramp up efforts to transition low-Earth activities to the 

commercial sector and end direct federal government support of 

the International Space Station in 2025 and begin relying on 

commercial partners for our low Earth orbit research and 

technology demonstration requirements. 

To that end, this budget proposes a $150 million investment in

2019 to encourage the U.S. space industry development of 
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capabilities for Low Earth Orbit either at the ISS or stand-alone 

that both the private sector and NASA can use. 

This budget also continues to support the Commercial Crew 

Program – with both providers continuing to make progress 

toward launching astronauts once again from the United States. 

This is a critical part of our LEO strategy going forward, and we 

are pleased to see the support continuing for this effort.

Finally, the budget maintains the space operations support 

associated with areas like Space Communications, Rocket 
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Propulsion Test, and Launch Services. All of this is part of our 

space operations and exploration infrastructure and necessary to 

conduct all our missions in Exploration and Science – further 

supporting the burgeoning growth in the Nation’s commercial 

space capabilities.

EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGY

Finally, Agency technology efforts will be combined and refocused

toward this Exploration Campaign. A healthy budget line of 

$1002.7M proposed for Exploration Research and Technology will 

integrate STMD and technology portions of the Advanced 
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Exploration Systems. Our investments in technology lay the 

groundwork for future human and robotic exploration. We’re 

going to invest in a lot of things, from habitat systems to in space 

propulsion to entry descent and landing technology to name a 

few.

The Agency will also realign our organizational structure to best 

meet this new exploration focus. I’ve asked Steve Jurczyk to lead 

an effort to design the new organizational approach. Today, we 

are looking at two options – a single mission directorate that 

includes LEO/Space Operations, Deep Space Exploration, and 

Exploration Research and Technology and, a second option that 
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includes any variation of those lines split into two mission 

directorates. Steve will report back to me on the proposed 

organizational structure alignment in the spring.

Science

Now let’s move to NASA’s critical science portfolio. This budget 

proposes $5.895B for science.

NASA’s incredible science portfolio will continue to increase 

understanding of our planet and our place in the universe, pursue 

civilization-level discoveries such as whether or not there is life 
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elsewhere in the universe, and scout for knowledge to inform

future human advancement into space. There will be Mars rover, 

lander, and sample return missions; diverse Earth and planetary 

missions; and spacecraft to study the Sun and how it influences 

the very nature of space. Powerful observatories will study other 

solar systems and their planets and peer back to the dawn of time 

through other galaxies.

Our wide ranging science work is enabled on many fronts in this 

budget, and it will continue to lead the world in its size, scope, and 

scientific output. 
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Robotic exploration of the solar system continues strongly, with 

funding in this budget for the next Mars rover launch in 2020, 

funding to explore possibilities of returning samples from Mars, 

and a Europa Clipper mission to fly repeatedly by Jupiter’s icy 

ocean moon Europa.

We’ll support a focused Earth science program while still 

proposing termination of five missions, the same as from last 

year’s budget. 

As stated earlier, the Science Mission Directorate will lead the 

initial lunar exploration efforts in close coordination with the 
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Human Exploration folks. The budget proposes $200M in 2019 to 

jump start scientific and lunar resource characterization efforts 

with small landers as our scouts followed by larger landers that 

can begin lunar surface mobility and sample return of lunar 

resources soon thereafter -- potentially through the Lunar Orbital 

Platform-Gateway.

The budget also continues to fund the work of scientists across 

the country to research and analyze the data coming from our 

many spacecraft we have flying today and look ahead to the next 

missions we need to accomplish to meet the many science 

objectives in front of us.
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We had to make some hard decisions as well in Science, and this 

budget proposes cancelling the WFIRST mission in astrophysics 

and redirects those resources to other Agency priorities.

Aeronautics

NASA’s work has always strengthened our national security and 

the economy, and our ongoing research and testing of new 

aeronautics technologies is critical in these areas. It will help us 

lead the world in a global aviation economy with increasing 

benefits worldwide. 
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This budget maintains a robust investment of $633.9M to improve 

air traffic management, make progress integrating unmanned 

systems into the airspace, and fund an experimental supersonic 

airplane and increase hypersonics research. 

Education

Another hard choice we had to make is in Education. The budget 

redirects funding for a formal Education office to other priorities. 

However, through our amazing missions, we will maintain a high 

level of engagement to inspire the next generation to pursue 

STEM studies and join us on our journey of discovery for many 

years to come. 
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I want to thank Mike Kincaid and the Education team for their 

efforts in this budget cycle.

SSMS and CECR

This budget funds the ongoing operations and restoration of 

NASA centers, ensures core services are optimized to achieve a 

safe and healthy workplace, and maintains funding for the 

independent technical authorities required to reduce risk to 

human and robotic missions. 

It also strengthens cybersecurity capabilities by safeguarding 

critical data and systems. 
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At a funding level of $2.749B, our efforts to reform and optimize 

our agency mission support services will continue to be critical to 

the long term health of our center capabilities. 

It is essential that we continue to make progress in reducing our 

facilities footprint with the goal of replacing old, obsolete and 

costly facilities with fewer, more efficient facilities. I applaud the 

work of our center and agency facilities master planners, who 

have embraced this vision and developed aggressive, innovative 

and strategically aligned master plans.
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Thanks as well to all of you who have been contributing to the 

Business Services Assessments and more recently to the Mission 

Support Architecture Program, which is looking at all the mission 

support functions to modernize, regionalize, and eliminate 

duplication across geographic boundaries where possible. 

While these efforts are not often as exciting and obvious to those 

outside the agency as a launch or a new discovery or 

breakthrough, they are critical to us ensuring the mission support 

areas are operating efficiently and effectively so maximum 

resources can go towards our missions. 
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Summary

In summary, I believe this budget has strong engagement for all 

of NASA, Academia, Industry, and our International Partners. It is 

truly the AND scenario that I often discuss, not the OR. 

While we had to make some tough decisions, as we always have 

to do, this 2019 budget sets the stage for an exciting decade of 

the 2020’s where we take our next giant leaps. 
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To demonstrate that, I believe it is useful to look forward to the 

end of the decade and see what we can accomplish with this 

budget. So fast forward with me to 2030.....

In Exploration, we will have crews and a growing number of 

people from all walks of life working around the Moon and on 

commercial platforms in low Earth orbit. 

We will be leveraging our industry partners to provide services to 

both lunar vicinity and low earth orbit. 
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SLS and Orion will be transporting crews routinely to the Lunar 

Orbital Platform-Gateway, and they will be transiting to and from 

the lunar surface and preparing to move even further into deep 

space. 

In Science, we will have utilized our lunar scouting missions, and

prospecting of lunar resources will be well under way. Samples 

will be collected on Mars and planning to bring them back to Earth 

is well underway. 
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We also have determined if we can generate oxygen from the 

Martian atmosphere in preparation for future human missions. We 

will have found countless exoplanets from JWST and TESS. 

JWST will have provided new insights into the formation of the 

universe. We will have explored Europa and be well on our way 

to landing a probe there and possibly found biological evidence of 

life elsewhere in our Universe. 

The science from the Parker Solar Probe will have provided the 

best understanding ever of our Sun and how space weather 

impacts us each day. 
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Our continuous understanding of the Earth has evolved thanks to 

many satellites and aircraft campaigns feeding our knowledge

and helps us manage our increasingly interconnected home 

planet,

And, finally, OSIRIS-Rex will have returned its sample from 

Bennu providing us untold insight into another planetary body.

In Aeronautics, drones will be fully integrated into the Nation’s 

airspace based on the system’s developed by NASA researchers 

for our FAA partners. Urban Air Mobility is a common mode of 
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transportation. And, a new fleet of supersonic passenger planes 

has hit the skies.

And, NASA, as an institution, has a more integrated and efficient 

footprint and has transformed its operating model to allow 

reinvestment of resources back into the mission and mission 

support areas.

THIS is what we can accomplish with this budget proposal – none 

of this is out of our reach! It will take all of us – NASA, academia, 

industry, and international partners -- but we CAN do this. The 
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Administration has provided us that vote of confidence –

entrusting us with this vision for the Nation’s growth and future.

I want the entire workforce to know how much your efforts have 

meant to NASA, and to see yourselves in our vision for the future, 

and to keep us moving steadily forward. 

You always come through. We have one mission success after 

another, and we keep moving toward the next challenges. 

Together. 

AND, because of that, I say the STATE OF NASA IS STRONG!
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In closing, what we do is generational AND aspirational. It makes 

us reach higher than we thought we ever could. It makes us push 

the limits of our knowledge and ignore those sometimes false 

boundaries between possible and impossible. 

For all of that, what do we get in return? Simply an opportunity to 

change the world. How cool is that?!?!

It’s truly an honor to lead this incredible team, and I look forward 

to accomplishing these amazing missions. With the confidence 
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this budget places in NASA and the capabilities of our U.S.

industry, we will solidify American leadership on space.

Thank you all for your service to NASA mission and our Nation!