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 NASA OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

 WASHINGTON, D.C. 

 Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Rollout 

 "NASA Agency Budget Briefing" 

 Speakers: 

 CHRISTOPHER SCOLESE, Acting Administrator 

 DAVID SCHURR, NASA Comptroller 

 Moderated by BOB JACOBS,

 Office of Public Affairs, NASA 

 2:30 p.m., EDT 

 Thursday May 7, 2009 

 NASA Headquarters 
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 P R O C E E D I N G S 

 MODERATOR: Good afternoon, and welcome to NASA 

Headquarters here in Washington. 

 My name is Bob Jacobs. I am with the NASA Office 

of Public Affairs, and welcome to the rollout of 2010 

fiscal year budget. 

 Joining us this afternoon is our Acting 

Administrator, Christopher Scolese, and to his left, David 

Schurr, the NASA Comptroller. 

 I will have some additional guidelines later, 

but, first, our opening remarks with Mr. Scolese. 

 Chris. 

 ACTING ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: Thanks, Bob. 

 Good afternoon, everybody. Today I am pleased to 

share with you some of the highlights of NASA's fiscal year 

2010 budget request. 

 Before I get into specifics about the budget, let 

me tell you a little bit about what we accomplished in the 

last year because I think it is important to see where we 

were and to see the excitement that we have coming up in 

the future and that this budget portends for the future. 

 Most of you already know this. We put the final 
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solar array on the Space Station. We are getting ready to 

support a six-person crew. We landed on Mars, our first 

power descent in close to 30 years with the Phoenix Lander, 

and we, for the first time, had a machine manufactured on 

the Earth touch water on a distant planet. 

 We have about 80 science and Earth science 

missions that are in development or in flight as we speak. 

 We are getting ready to launch the final 

servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope to prepare 

it for its next extension as it moves along. 

 The reason I mention some of those is that I 

don't know how many of you had the opportunity to watch on 

television or see some of the activities, but we have a 

very strong supporter of this program in the President and 

in the Science Advisor. 

 During the flight of STS-119, while it was docked 

to the Space Station, there was a call by the President to 

the combined crews of astronauts and cosmonauts from many 

nations, truly an international mission. 

 I was sitting there, and the President was as 

excited as you can imagine and demonstrated not only there 

his enthusiasm for the space program, but, subsequently, in 
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his remarks at the National Academy, where he used NASA 

repeatedly as a model of what can be accomplished and also 

with his recognition of the STS-119 crew. He met with them 

just last Friday. 

 I regularly meet with the Science Advisor. In 

fact, just before I got here -- some of you were already 

there with me -- we were having a combined press conference 

to discuss the combined science budget, and I want to point 

out from that budget, you are going to see a profile, when 

David shows it, and it is very similar to the nation's 

investments in science, technology, and research. 

 The budget goes up considerably in 2009 because 

of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That money 

actually covers '09 and '10. There is an increase in the 

budget in '10, as well. And then recognizing the fiscal 

realties in developing a fiscally response budget, it 

doesn't grow, it doesn't grow as fast as any of us would 

like, but those are the realities that we live with. 

 However, when you look at that budget, when you 

look at the NASA budget, in particular, you will see when 

you add the numbers up, that it is about $2 billion higher 

through 2011 than it was in the previous budget, and if you 
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go out a little further, you will see through 2013, it is 

about a billion dollars more. That is critical for what we 

want to accomplish as an agency. 

 In particular, you will see some -- and David, 

again, will cover the detail, but just to highlight a 

couple of things, you will see increases in the science 

budget, you will see increases in aeronautics budget, and 

you will see a critical increase in the early years for 

exploration where we need the resources to work towards the 

2015 initial operational capability. 

 I also want to mention here -- and I will take 

questions later -- that one of the aspects of this budget 

is we were requested to conduct a more detailed study of 

the human space flight capabilities. Recognizing that we 

have some decisions that need to come up, we want to fully 

utilize the International Space Station. That is a 

decision that needs to be factored into this review. 

 We need to consider the workforce and the 

transition requirements as we retire the Shuttle and move 

on to the next system, and we need to look at what the gap 

means and how to best utilize the commercial and 

international capabilities that are out there. 
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 So the President's Science Advisor has asked us, 

and we have jointly are forming a review team, a blueribbon team that will be headed by Norm Augustine, to go 

off and lead that review, which we anticipate being done in 

the next 60 to 90 days, so that by August we are prepared 

to make any budget adjustments that may need to be made. 

 On the NASA end, because it is going to be a 

quick review, a detailed review, and a thorough review of 

human space flight, we have asked Dr. Mike Hawes, who heads 

up our Program Analysis and Evaluation, to lead that team 

and be the principal interface with Norm Augustine and his 

team. More details below that on who the team members are 

aren't available yet. We are still working those. 

 So I wanted to mention that up front, but, 

overall, I think you are going to find that this budget is 

a very good budget for NASA. It allows us to accomplish a 

lot of our goals and our activities, and with that, David, 

I will leave it to you to run through the details. 

 MR. SCHURR: Thanks, Chris. 

 The NASA budget derives from a series of key 

governance documents, legislative policy, executive policy, 

which you will see here -- our authorization bill is the 
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Space Act itself -- U.S. National Space Policy, and the 

Aeronautics R&D Policy, as well as we rely heavily on the 

science priorities identified by the National Academy of 

Sciences' reports currently using the 2006 strategic plan, 

and what you are seeing before you is the 2010 budget 

estimates, our request that is going to Congress today. 

 Going to page 3. The top line request has not 

changed since the President released his budget in 

February. You will see the name numbers. 

 The request for 2010 is $18.7 billion, and it is 

a 5.1-percent increase above the appropriated levels for 

2009, approximately $904 million. 

 As Chris noted, with the addition of the billion 

dollars that was appropriated as a part of the Recovery 

Act, NASA's budget from 2009 to 2011 is $2 billion above 

our plan from a year ago, the 2009 budget request. So that 

is a significant investment in the additional programs of 

the agency. 

 The 2010 budget does complete assembly of the 

International Space Station. In 2010, we will be flying 

six Shuttle flights, including the delivery of the Alpha 

Magnetic Spectrometer. 
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 We retire the Space Shuttle following the 

completion of the nine remaining Shuttle flights that are 

on the manifest. That is currently scheduled for the end 

of fiscal year 2010. 

 We continue to stimulate the private sector 

developments, demonstration of vehicles that may support 

NASA's cargo and crew requirements. 

 We support the administration's commitment to 

deploy a global climate change research and monitoring 

system by increasing the Earth science budget by $1.3 

billion -- that is 19 percent, including the Recovery Act 

funds -- over last year's, the 2009 budget plan. That is a 

five-year run-out comparison. 

 That will allow us to complete the foundational 

issues and accelerate the first four missions in the 

venture class mission line that are recommended in the 2007 

Decadal Survey. 

 This budget increases NASA's investment in 

aeronautics research by $450 million -- that is a 

20-percent increase over the five-year plan from a year ago 

-- establishing a new green aviation initiative that will 

research technologies to simultaneously reduce fuel burn, 
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noise, and emissions. 

 As Chris pointed out, we are also in this budget 

increasing exploration by $630 million in the critical two 

years, 2009, 2010 -- that is including our Recovery Act 

funds -- to continue working towards a March 2015 initial 

operational capability, and, as Chris noted, we are 

initiating a review of the human space flight activities 

for the post-Shuttle time frame. 

 Page 4 will show you the details of the budget. 

We have broken out the Recovery Act as a separate line 

item, and I believe copies of these have been made 

available to you. So I am not going to try to read all the 

numbers to you. 

 The 2010 request is a 5.1-percent increase over 

the 2009 appropriated. 

 You will note asterisks on the exploration 

numbers from 2010 through '14. As a result of the review, 

we might see a re-mix of the priorities with an exploration 

so that the splits between Constellation Systems and 

Advanced Capabilities may be updated based upon the results 

of the review, come the August time frame. 

 Going to the Science, page 5, science request is 
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about $4.5 billion. As noted across the five-year plan for 

Science, it is a $1.3-billion increase for Earth Science. 

That allows to complete the foundational missions. That is 

Glory and the NPOESS Preparatory Project, a global 

participation mission in the Landsat Data Continuity 

Mission plus Aquarius, as well as accelerate the 

development of the four new missions identified in the 

Earth Science Decadal Survey, SMAP, ICESat-II, Destiny and 

CLARIO, and to begin a series of venture class mission 

opportunities. Those will be joining the existing 15 

missions that are currently in orbit providing global 

observations. 

 We in 2010 are establishing the Lunar Quest 

Program. This is combing the existing lunar science 

research and the lunar robotics missions, some of which are 

coming the Exploration program, the Lunar Reconnaissance 

Orbiter, once it has finished its primary mission. 

 We are continuing the ground mission for launch 

in 2011 to map the Moon's gravity field in LADEE, which 

will be studying the Moon's dust environment, as well at 

the International Lunar Network. 

 We will be completing the Mars Science Laboratory 
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for a launch in 2011, following a highly successful Rover 

Spirit opportunity, and the MAVEN, which is a Mars Scout 

for launch in 2013. 

 Work continues on Juno for a launch to Jupiter in 

2011, and we have announced a new NASA/ESA Joint Flagship 

Mission to Europa and the Jupiter system. 

 In 2010, we will be operating some new key 

observatories, the recently launched Kepler, a soon-to-berefurbished Hubble Space Telescope, Herschel and Planck, 

which launched this month, and WISE, which launches late 

this fall. 

 Work continues on SOFIA, which will begin early 

science flights in 2010, New Star to launch in 2011, and 

the James Webb Space Telescope to launch in 2014. 

 We are looking forward to the next Astrophysics 

Decadal Survey, which will be completed in 2010, 

identifying the priorities for the science community for 

our missions going forward. 

 In heliophysics, we will be launching the Solar 

Dynamics Observatory, continuing the development of the 

radiation belt storm probes for launch in 2012, and the 

magnetospheric multi-scale satellites for launch in 2014. 
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 We are also are continuing our preformulation 

activities for the Solar Probe Plus mission for launch in 

2018. 

 Page 6, I won't try to read all of these to you, 

but we currently have 82 missions that are in various 

stages of development and operations, 56 operating 

missions. Plus, there are three that are listed on here 

that are in preformulation that are identified in the 

budget, specifically CLARIO, Destiny, and the Solar Probe 

Plus mission. 

 Of the ones in development, there are three that 

are worth noting, GRAIL, Juno, and James Webb Space 

Telescope all went through the confirmation review last 

year and have been graduated to development in the full 

budget, as shown in this request. 

 Page 7, our Aeronautics budget, the request is 

$507 million. As I noted, it is about a 20-percent 

increase for Aeronautics across the five-year budget plan. 

 We will be continuing our innovative fundamental 

research in capabilities in all regimes of flight, 

air-breathing access to space, entering the planetary 

atmospheres, our cutting-edge air traffic management to 
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enable Next-Gen, safety-related concepts, tools and 

technologies to help ensure the safety of the U.S. air 

transportation system, and we are maintaining the 

capability of our Aeronautics test facilities to meet the 

needs of aeronautic, the agency, as well as the nation. 

 In Aeronautics, we are creating a new program, 

the Integrated Systems Research Program. Its first project 

will be environmentally responsible aviation project to 

conduct research and integrated system-level approaches to 

reduce the environmental impact of aviation looking at 

noise level, local and global emissions, and local air 

quality. 

 The research within our Aeronautics portfolio is 

aligned with the high-priority challenges, goals, and 

objectives of the national plan for Aeronautics R&D, the 

continued focus on developing a world-class aeronautics 

workforce, and in 2010, we will have $74 million in our 

NASA research announcements. 

 Exploration Systems is just under a $4-billion 

request. Orion and Ares I will continue working towards 

the goal of initial operational capability by March of 2015 

-- and we move to page 8 -- as well as working towards the 
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human lunar return by 2020. 

 We have some major tests coming up in 2010, the 

Ares 1-X test from Pad B, the launch pad abort test from 

White Sands, and in 2010, we will conduct the Constellation 

Systems Level Preliminary Design Review. 

 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will be 

launching in 2009, we will be conducting primary operations 

for 2010, as well. 

 As Chris noted, we are initiating an independent 

review of human space flight activities for the 

post-Shuttle retirement to assess our current plans, as 

well as potential alternatives, examine the capabilities of 

these architectures to support the Station and exploration 

missions, and to ensure that NASA pursues the best solution 

for future human space flight. 

 As part of this review, we will consider options 

to extend the ISS beyond 2016. If required, an updated 

budget request will be submitted to the Congress at the end 

of this review. Right now, we think that is about the 

August time frame. 

 Page 9, our Space Operations request is $6.2 

billion. We have nine Shuttle flights remaining through 
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the end of fiscal year 2010, eight Station assembly 

flights, plus a Hubble servicing mission which is scheduled 

for next week, including the delivery of the Alpha Magnetic 

Spectrometer. 

 Our plan retires the Shuttle following the 

completion of the nine remaining flights. That is 

currently scheduled for the end of fiscal year 2010. 

 We also for the first time have incorporated the 

transitional retirement cost beyond Shuttle retirement 

through the 2012 time frame. 

 In the beginning of fiscal year '10, we will be 

turning over Pad B for the Constellation program to begin 

their modifications to support Ares I. 

 The International Space Station is essentially 

complete. We have a planned expansion of the crew this 

month to six astronauts and cosmonauts to allow us to fully 

use the Station as both a national laboratory for 

scientific research and a test bed for future human 

exploration. 

 2010 request funds the contracts with the Russian 

Space Agency to provide crew transportation to the station, 

as well as two commercial resupply services contracts for 
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delivering cargo. 

 Space operations will be developing a 

demonstration project to demonstrate high-rate optical 

communications using the LADEE spacecraft in 2012, plus 

ground systems that are designed to demonstrate these new 

systems, and as I noted in the review that will be 

conducted this summer, we will be looking at options for 

extending the ISS beyond 2016 where those will be 

evaluated. 

 Go to page 10, and I will turn this back over to 

Chris. 

 ACTING ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: As you always 

know, we always have challenges in any activity as exciting 

and as difficult as what NASA normally does, and top among 

those is safely flying the Shuttle, protecting our crews, 

so that we can accomplish our missions. And as we 

mentioned earlier, that is flying out the manifest that we 

anticipate being completed by the end of fiscal year 2010. 

 Also, in the process of developing a new human 

and cargo space flight capabilities, they present 

interesting challenges, and we intend to work through 

those. This review will help us in doing that, but we are 
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going to continue to move ahead. We are not stopping 

anything. We are progressing with the plans that we have 

in place. 

 Clearly, transitioning a workforce as you ramp 

down a major program that has been around for 30 years, 

that has built up a strong, loyal, capable workforce and 

has facilities, transferring that and transitioning that to 

the next-generation system always presents challenges, and 

we are working very hard to minimize the impacts associated 

with that and to maximize the utility of systems for the 

next generation of systems. 

 Of course, as many of you have heard and seen, 

one of the things that NASA does working at the cutting 

edge, as we do, trying to send new capabilities into space, 

whether they are looking at the Earth or they are going out 

to the planets or they are looking out to the stars or 

carrying people, they are all typically new systems that 

are pushing the frontiers somewhere in that range, so 

developing a good, strong, solid estimates that demonstrate 

that we can do those missions and do those within the 

technical limits that we identify, meet the requirements, 

meet the costs and meet the schedule. 
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 Over the years and, in particular, in the last 

year, we have put in a lot of means of going off to assure 

that we do that with better cost-estimating procedures, 

more frequent and more thorough and more complete status 

reviews, so that we can identify and address issues as they 

come up earlier and, therefore, prevent them from becoming 

more significant problems. So we have done a lot of things 

to go off and make that work. The challenge is for us to 

go off and prove that those systems do, indeed, work. 

 So if we can go to the next chart, please. 

 So, in summary, what does this budget represent? 

 As I said, I think, at least I was surprised that, you 

know, that in the last month, I have seen the President 

three times, and I think that is an indication that NASA is 

something that this administration really cares about. 

 The fact that we were highlighted in the budget 

discussions today with the Science Advisor, I think is 

another indication of that. 

 And I think you see it in this first bullet here, 

when you look at it, $630-million increase to Exploration, 

a $456-million increase to Science, and a $263-million 

increase to Aeronautics. Those are significant increases, 
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and they allow us to accomplish a lot of the goals that 

David mentioned to work more completely and to have more 

confidence in our initial operating capability, to allow us 

to reinvigorate and extend the climate research on the 

Earth science that we are doing, to go off and do some more 

in Aeronautics with green aviation, as we go off and look 

at environmentally responsible aviation initiatives that 

address not only aircraft design but the air system, allow 

us to work more effectively with our partners nationally 

and internationally. 

 The Human Space Flight Review, we mentioned 

earlier, is going to go on, and it is going to address the 

current plan, how we are progressing, where it is going, 

and potential alternatives that we will need to address as 

we are moving along. 

 While we are doing that, of course, we are going 

to keep on moving with the plan that we have. We are going 

to keep on moving on with the assembly of the Space 

Station, as we mentioned, to continue flying the Shuttle, 

to continue the development of Ares I, Orion, and 

associated Constellation Systems. We have some exciting 

launches coming up in the science side that we mentioned a 
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little bit earlier. 

 We also have the test flights of the Ares 1-X 

that is coming up later this year and the pad abort test 

that is coming up later this year as well. 

 I mentioned the environmentally responsible 

aviation. We are also relying on and funding the service 

to deliver cargo to the Space Station commercially. That 

is something that is new, that hadn't been heard of before. 

 We are also stimulating the commercial crew access to the 

Space Station with this budget. 

 But some of the others, to just close off on it, 

I mentioned the Earth Science missions. We are also 

initiating a new line of Earth Science missions to go off 

and do emerging sciences as they come up, called the 

Venture Class missions. It is analogous to what we do with 

explore and discovery, but it is focusing on Earth. 

 So, with that, I think we have demonstrated that 

we have a fairly robust budget, that we have the confidence 

and the support of the administration, and I will turn it 

over to you, Bob, to manage questions. 

 MODERATOR: A couple of reminders. Wait for the 

microphone before asking your question, and don't forget to 
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give us your and affiliation. 

 Let's begin here with Frank. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thank you, Frank Morring with 

Aviation Week, for you, Chris. 

 With this Augustine panel taking another look at 

the Exploration and at the same time Exploration getting 

$630 million, at least in the request, are there any 

changes anticipated in how you are going to carry on the 

program while the panel reviews it, I guess? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: No. I mean, we 

are going to continue to move ahead. As you know, these 

years, the next several years, we were focusing on IOC, 

initial operational capability for the system, and that is 

going to continue to be the focus until or if there are 

changes identified that would move us off that path, so no 

changes in the immediate future. No. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Can you elaborate a little bit 

how the IOC is defined at this point, the March 15th IOC? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: I think it has 

been defined as what it was it before. It is the 

operational capability where you can carry crew up to the 

Station and bring them back. That is the initial 
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operational capability. 

 MODERATOR: How about in front of Frank there? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Hi. Eric Hand with Nature 

Magazine with a question for you, Chris. 

 Can you say, is this review panel going to be 

looking more at alternatives to the goals of space 

exploration, i.e., finish the Space Station and on to the 

Moon, or are you going to be looking more at alternatives 

to the architecture in reaching those goals, or both? 

 And I have a follow-up, depending on the answer. 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: Well, David 

laid out the objectives in broad terms. 

 The purpose of the review is go off and assess 

the progress that we have made so far and that we are 

making and where we are going with that, and then to assess 

alternatives, where and if they see those as being prudent. 

 So the review team, led by Norm Augustine, has 

the opportunity to look at all the things that you 

mentioned, but, first, I anticipate they are going to off 

and assess the status of where we are at and the progress 

that we are making. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: If it is a potential review 
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and assessment of alternatives for the architecture, isn't 

this what was done in the period of time from 2004 to the 

time that initial contracts were awarded in 2006? I mean, 

you have been spending, it looked like, about $6 billion in 

the last two years on Constellation. How would that be 

anything other than wasted money if you were to change the 

architecture now? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: Well, I think, 

you know, as anything, reviews come in and look at the 

progress that you are making and try and determine if you 

have got issues or, in some cases, if there is a better of 

doing it. That is the purpose of the review. We conduct 

those routinely in this agency. 

 If you look at it, we have them at specific 

design points, our preliminary design reviews, our critical 

design reviews. We are approaching a preliminary design 

review here. We also want to review our programs about 

every two years to see where we are at. 

 When I sat down with John Holdren and we 

discussed where were going, you can expect that a new 

administration coming in will have to understand where we 

are at and is this the best way to go forward. That is the 
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purpose of the review, to understand that. 

 Clearly, if we are on the wrong path, we should 

change. If you are asking me do I think we are on the 

wrong path, no, I don't, and we need to go off and 

demonstrate that, and the review team needs to look at it 

and understand what we are doing and offer suggestions on 

how we can do it better, but, however, we have to allow the 

review team to have the opportunity to look at all the 

alternatives that are out there and look at all the options 

that may be out there. 

 So that is the sense that this is looking. It is 

a new administration. They want to understand where we are 

at, where we are going, what the commitment is going to be 

for the next several years with this system. We are making 

a commitment for this nation for human space flight for 

many years to come, and they need to understand that, and, 

at the same time, we need to have a check on ourselves. 

 MODERATOR: How about on the other side? Anyone 

on this side? All right. Let's go over to Mark. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Mark Mathews with the 

Sentinel. The question is for Chris, I guess a couple. 

 The first, how much per month does NASA spend on 
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the Constellation program on average? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: David, do you 

have that off the top of your head? 

 MR. SCHURR: I could do a division by 12 for you. 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: We will get 

that number to you. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: By my own math, it is 

something along he lines of 250- to $300 million, something 

like that. 

 MR. SCHURR: Based upon the budget, that's about 

right. 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: That's about 

right. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: So, if there is a three-month 

study going on looking at Constellation, which may or may 

not come back and say, this is the right way to go, then 

why not save taxpayers something along the lines of $900 

million by cutting off Constellation? Why continue with 

the program and not shut it down? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: Well, you are 

presuming that they are going to shut it down. We are not 

presuming that they are going to shut it down, and we have 
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a national imperative to go off and minimize the gap. So 

what you are proposing would, by definition, likely 

increase the gap. 

 So we are working to preserve the capabilities 

that we have got, to allow us to have as minimal of a gap 

as we can possibly have, and to preserve the workforce that 

is working not only on Shuttle and Station and all the 

other activities, but, also, frankly, supporting the 

Constellation program. So that would be, I think, a bigger 

mistake to stop, rather than to continue. 

 MODERATOR: Any additional questions? Go ahead. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: So also reading into some of 

the budget notes for today, it talks about finishing all 

the Shuttle flights, which are scheduled for an end by 

2010. What happens if there are delays, as there often are 

on all the Shuttle flights, and we can't get all six 

flights in 2010? Are they going to move into 2011? 

Because previous budget documents say 2010 is the end. 

Does this mean that they are going to go on? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: They could. I 

mean, the commitment is to complete those nine flights. 

 Today, with the manifest as we understand it, we 
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are confident that we can complete those by the end of 

fiscal year '10. If we run into difficulties, of course, 

we will have to go off and address that, and that could 

mean that we spill over beyond the end of fiscal year '10, 

but the commitment is go off and fly those nine flights. 

And I will repeat again, all of our analysis indicates that 

we can complete that by the end of the fiscal year. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Where is the money to pay for 

these extra flights going to come from if they do go into 

fiscal year 2011? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: We will have to 

address that, as we understand. 

 You know, we are going to know well before the 

end of the fiscal year whether or not we are going to make 

the end of fiscal year '10 or not. We assess the manifest 

regularly, and if we see that we are running into 

difficulties, we will start addressing those issues, but it 

would require additional budget if we went beyond the end 

of fiscal year '10. But we will know well before we get 

there, what the issues are, and we will be able to start 

working those. 

 MODERATOR: I believe we have a question in the 
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back. Please. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Dave Ahearn with Space & 

Missile Report and Defense Daily. 

 If the team comes in and reviews, for example, 

whether we should continue with ARIES I or we should move 

to, let's say, another lift or a military, would a 

requisite be that whatever lifter is chosen, whatever you 

move to, would have to be able to perform fully all the 

functions that ARIES I would on a full lunar mission? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: Well, yeah, I 

mean, assuming -- yes, I mean, think the answer has to be 

yes to that question. So, yes. 

 [Laughter.] 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: I don't know 

what else I can add to that one. 

 MODERATOR: Frank, a follow-up? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Frank Morring with Aviation 

Week. 

 Your predecessor in that chair recently 

complained mightily that a career civil servant at OMB 

requested a $3-billion-plus cut in Exploration funding, and 

you just mentioned that you have seen the President three 
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times. Did the President reject that suggestion from OMB? 

 Could you describe what happened to that cut? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: I didn't ask 

the President. So, no. 

 I mean, Mike was speaking as a private citizen, 

and I would rather not comment on that. He is allowed to 

make his comments. 

 Clearly, when you look at the budget, it is less 

than 14, than last year's budget, and that is not a 

surprise. It is just the numbers. You compare the two. 

 We have to go off and deal with that. There is a 

fiscal reality that we are all dealing with in this 

country, and as I mentioned earlier and ask you saw, Frank, 

when John showed the charts earlier today, that Federal R&D 

is flat out in those years. 

 I think the more important aspect of this whole 

thing is the commitment that was shown by the increase of 

the Recovery Act funds and the increase in the '10 budget 

that are really in the years that we needed it. 

 If you recall in Exploration, in all the 

discussions, we have said that it is the early years where 

we really need to go off and have the funding so that we 
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can get the tests in that we need them, get them in the 

right order, get the materials we need, go off and work the 

designs. So having the funding in these early years is 

very critical for the program and really for any program if 

you can get it at the right phasing. 

 So I think that is the message, that we have a 

significant increase in the first couple of years. 

 MODERATOR: One more follow-up with Mark. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Well, to go back to some of 

the questions about this study coming up, recently John 

Shannon wrote that hope is not an effective management tool 

when talking about continuing Shuttle operations. They 

spend about $89 million doing that, and because there is no 

real sense of continuing, they shut it down. 

 In that same vein, if hope is not an effective 

management tool, then why continue Constellation if there 

is a chance that it may not be the selected program? 

Again, how is this prudent use of taxpayer money? Or delay 

it at least. 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: Well, you are 

presuming an outcome, and if you presume an outcome, you 

can get any answer you want. 
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 We are not presuming an outcome. We are doing 

what the President asked us to do, and the President asked 

us to keep on going in this budget, and we are. It is as 

simple as that. 

 MODERATOR: Yes, over here to the left. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Jackie Grom, Science Magazine. 

 I was wondering exactly what are the potential 

alternatives that you see being assessed under the review 

process? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: It probably 

wouldn't be good for me to speculate on that. The review 

team still has to be formed and has to come in. 

 I mean, clearly, as I said, they are going to 

look at what we are doing, and I haven't even had the 

opportunity to have a discussion with Norm Augustine, John 

Holdren, and Mike Hawes about this as a group. So I think 

it would be presumptuous of me to go off and speculate 

there. 

 MODERATOR: Here in the front. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Eun Kim with Gannett News 

Service. 

 Congress recently committed to giving NASA an 
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additional $2.5 billion, but that figure is not anywhere in 

the budget. Are you using that as a cushion or as a 

fallback once this study is completed? How are you going 

to incorporate that? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: Well, if it 

gets enacted. It hasn't been yet. If it gets enacted, 

then, of course, we will incorporate it, but that hasn't 

happened yet. They have to put it in the budget. We can't 

 do anything until it is in the budget. 

 MODERATOR: Frank? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: If I can ask you a science 

question. Does the plus-up in Earth Science money mean 

that you might be able to advance LDCM a little bit? 

 MR. SCHURR: Working towards 2012. 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: We are working 

towards the 2012 date. I don't think that is in advance of 

the time now. So we are still working on the same, and it 

provides a little bit more security to do that. 

 Also, talking about LDCM, it allows us to start 

development of the Thermal Infrared Sensor that was taken 

off earlier. So that is now added back into the mix. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: And that is fully funded in 
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this budget? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: And that is 

fully funded in this budget, yes. 

 MODERATOR: Over here to the left. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Space News. 

 I'm looking at the Ares 1-X test. Has that been 

moved out of this summer? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: No. I mean, it 

has slipped because we have the two Shuttles on the pad. 

So we couldn't turn the pad over. We are still planning to 

do Ares 1-X and the pad abort test this year. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. Thank you. 

 MODERATOR: We have time for one final question. 

 Mark, we will give it to you. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: NASA is getting a billion 

dollars in stimulus money. How many jobs is that going to 

create? 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: We have those 

numbers on the Web page. I don't know off the top of my 

head. 

 MODERATOR: www.nasa.gov/recovery. 

 ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SCOLESE: There you go. 
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 MODERATOR: If there are no follow-up questions, 

thank you for joining us for today's presentation. 

 A reminder, there will be a series of follow-on 

media teleconference with the individual mission 

directorates, and later this afternoon, we will an advisory 

about media availability on Friday with Mr. Augustine. 

 For complete details and additional information 

about the budget, please visit our website, 

www.nasa.gov/budget, and, again, thank you for joining us 

for this afternoon's presentation. Good afternoon. 

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