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REMARKS FOR ADMINISTRATOR BOLDEN

FISCAL YEAR 2013 NASA BUDGET ROLLOUT

Feb. 13, 2012

 It's my privilege to share NASA's FY2013 budget -- a $17.7 

billion dollar blueprint for NASA and the nation to embark on 

an ambitious plan of space exploration that will take us 

farther into the solar system than we have ever gone before. 

 Despite a constrained fiscal environment, this budget 

continues to aggressively implement the space exploration 

program agreed to by the President and a bipartisan majority 

in Congress . . . laying the foundation for remarkable 

discoveries here on Earth and in deep space.

 While reaching for new heights in space, we’re creating new 

jobs right here on Earth, helping to support an economy 

that’s built to last. 
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 We're developing new capacities for exploration, new ways 

of doing business and creating a bright future driven by 

aviation and space technology breakthroughs and missions 

to places we've never been, including an asteroid and Mars. 

 The time for debate about our future is over. We have a 

solid plan, a sustainable plan, and we’re moving out to 

implement it . . . opening the next great chapter of American 

exploration.

 There's no doubt that tough decisions had to be made, here 

at NASA and all across government. However, ours is a 

stable budget that allows us to support a diverse portfolio of 

human exploration, technology development, science, 

aeronautics, and education work. 
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 This budget continues the work we started last year with bipartisan support of the Congress and approval of the 

President.

 We’ve made steady and tangible progress on the nextgeneration deep space crew capsule and our new heavy lift 

rocket that will launch astronauts on journeys to destinations 

farther in our solar system. This priority is funded in this 

budget. 

 Already we've been doing test firings of the J-2X engine that 

will power the heavy lift's upper stage. Orion has undergone 

water drop tests for its eventual ocean landings. Funding is 

included in this budget to keep this important work going.
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 We’ve continued to maintain an American presence in space 

onboard the International Space Station, our orbiting 

laboratory where we learn more about human health and 

demonstrate technologies, like those we'll need for bolder 

missions in the future. 

 This budget funds our work on Station, while supporting jobs 

right here on earth. As a former astronaut and head of the 

world’s most successful space agency, I am committed to 

launching astronauts from American soil, on spacecraft built 

by American companies. 

 This year we'll have the first ever launch and berthing of a 

spacecraft by a private company. That is a critical and

historic milestone. Just last week we issued an 

announcement for proposals for the next round of 

commercial crew acquisition activities.
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 This budget provides the funding needed to bring our human 

space launches back home to the U.S. and get American 

companies transporting our astronauts once again. 

 Some of these are the same American companies on whom 

we’re depending to build the biggest rocket this nation has 

ever produced to go deeper into space to destinations like 

an asteroid, back to the Moon, and on to Mars. 

 Among them are the American companies on whom we’re 

depending to build the state-of-the art crew capsule that will 

carry U.S. astronauts farther than anyone has ever gone 

before. 

 We just concluded our latest call for astronauts, which drew 

a near-record number of applicants. The 2013 class will join
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the class of 2009 that just graduated and is even now 

training for the missions of the future.

 These are the first space travelers that could, one day, reach 

an asteroid and they will pioneer the path for future 

astronauts to set foot on Mars. 

 Space Technology is generating the ideas and the actual 

innovations that will take us farther; ideas such as solarelectric propulsion, lightweight cryogenic propellant tanks. 

 These cutting edge ideas are all supported in this budget

that builds on the work we've already been doing. 

 Last year we provided 80 space technology research 

fellowships to graduate students to complete their studies 
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and join us in tomorrow's missions. Continuation of that 

important initiative is funded in this budget.

 With this budget we continue to refine and demonstrate 

technologies that will increase our nation's capabilities. 

 This budget provides for more of the type of projects like the

three technology demonstration mission proposals we 

selected this past year to transform space laser 

communications, deep space navigation using atomic 

clocks, and in-space propulsion capabilities, including solar 

sails. 

 We do many things in space; spending U.S. tax dollars is not 

one of them. Every dollar spent on space exploration is 

spent right here on Earth.
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 This budget in-sources jobs, creates capabilities here at 

home – and strengthens our workforce. 

 The rapid pace of scientific discoveries from NASA missions 

continues. 

 This year we will land Curiosity, the largest rover ever, on 

Mars and continue to develop and conduct critical tests on 

the James Webb Space Telescope leading to its planned 

launch in 2018. As the successor to Hubble Space 

Telescope, the Webb telescope will again revolutionize our 

understanding of the universe. 

 This budget supports more than 80 science missions – 56 

currently in operation and 28 now under development - that

cover the vital data we need to understand our own planet;

diverse missions reaching farther into our solar system; and 

the next generation of observatories peering beyond the 
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reaches of our neighborhood to other galaxies and their 

solar systems and undiscovered phenomena. 

 However, tough choices had to be made.

 This means we will not be moving forward with the planned 

2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions that we had been 

exploring with the European Space Agency. Instead, we will 

develop an integrated strategy to ensure that the next steps 

for Mars exploration will support science as well as human 

exploration goals, and potentially take advantage of the 

2018-2020 exploration window. 

 The budget provides support for this new approach, and this 

process will be informed by extensive coordination with the 

science community and our international partners.
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 This Administration remains committed to a vibrant and 

coordinated strategy of Mars exploration and continuing 

America’s leadership role in the exploration of the Red 

Planet within the available budget. 

 Our goals include not only new path-breaking robotic 

missions to Mars, but also future human missions, as 

outlined by the President.

 I have tasked the head of the Science Mission Directorate,

Dr. John Grunsfeld; the head of Human Exploration, Bill 

Gerstenmaier; our Chief Technologist, Dr. Mason Peck; and 

our Chief Scientist, Dr. Waleed Abdalatti, with crafting an 

integrated Mars strategy – one that will ensure that the next 

steps for the Robotic Mars Exploration Program will support 

science as well as long-term human exploration goals. 
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 The missions currently at Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory 

on its way, and MAVEN well into development, will provide 

many years of data to help us understand the Red Planet 

and our needs in future years to meet the President's 

challenge to send humans to Mars in the mid-2030s.

 In aeronautics, our investments are driving technology 

breakthroughs for cleaner, safer, and more efficient aircraft. 

 The millions of flyers around the world will benefit from our 

work and our partnership with the greater aviation

community to transform our air travel system. 

 One of my greatest pleasures is to talk to young people and 

answer their questions about what it's like to go to space and

how they can pursue a career in science, technology, 

engineering, and mathematics. 
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 In this budget, we focus on education programs with 

measurable return. This will help us feed that pipeline we so 

urgently need of new scientists and engineers to share their 

energies, passions, and great intelligence with us.

 I'm very optimistic about our future and our next generation 

of exploration leaders. 

 The missions we begin now, the technologies we create, and 

the discoveries we make are all going to inspire them and 

help us sustain an American economy built to last. 

 This budget is about American innovation and American 

ingenuity. It's about keeping the U.S. the world leader in 

space exploration and showcasing our knack for solving 

problems and improving life here on Earth. 
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 We're ready to work; ready to be surprised not only by what 

we discover, but by how much we can accomplish when we 

work together as one nation – proud and energized by a 

space program that is reaching higher and unfolding the 

future today. 

 Now let me turn the podium over to my Chief Financial 

Officer, Dr. Beth Robinson to brief the details of fiscal year 

2013 Budget Proposal.