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 NASA OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

 WASHINGTON, D.C. 

 Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Rollout 

 "Science Mission Directorate Budget Briefing" 

 Speaker: 

 WILLIAM H. GERSTENMAIER, Associate Administrator, 

 Space Operations Mission Directorate 

 Moderated by MIKE CURIE, 

 Office of Public Affairs, NASA 

 6:00 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: Thank you all very much for being 

here. We are here for the Space Operations Mission 

Directorate section of the budget telecons that you have 

been participating in, and with us today is our Associate 

Administrator for Space Operations, Mr. Bill Gerstenmaier, 

who would like to start off with a couple of comments, and 

then we will get right to questions. 

 Mr. Gerstenmaier? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Thanks, Mike. 

 Again, as I think you heard in your earlier 

briefings, this is a pretty busy year for us in Space 

Operations. We have had a lot of activity so far this 

year. We have a lot planned very much in the future here. 

 Today, there was a Progress launch to the Space 

Station that will dock in several days. We have got the 

Hubble mission coming up on Monday with its launch, and 

then some follow-on Shuttle missions in June and throughout 

the rest of the year. So it is a very busy time for us, a 

very exciting time to move forward, as we are moving 

forward. 

 As you see in the FY10 budget, we are pretty 
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stable overall throughout the directorate, and I don't 

think there is anything unique I would call out specially 

to your attention, and I look forward to your questions. 

 MODERATOR: Okay. With that, I think we will go 

ahead and open it up to questions. Before we do that, a 

reminder that a replay of this telecon will be available by 

phone about an hour after its conclusion. Let me give you 

the phone number, so you can write it down, in case you 

need it. It is toll free, 888-566-0435, and if you need to 

dial a toll number, it is 402-998-0605. 

 Why don't we begin. We will begin with Seth 

Borenstein. Seth? 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Seth, your line is 

open. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Can you hear me? Thanks for 

doing this. 

 One of the questions in the overall review is 

looking at the idea of extending capability of 

International Space Station. Can you tell us what you gain 

and at what cost extending past 2016 would be? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: The things you would gain is 

you would gain the potential to use the Space Station in a 
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research mode. We will be, essentially, complete with 

Space Station at the end of 2010 from an assembly 

standpoint. This year, as we step up to a six-person crew, 

we have a lot of research capability, lots of 

investigations we can go do. We would get a continued use 

of Space Station during that period of time. We would also 

be able to do some more engineering, evaluations in support 

of the lunar activity. We can do some more human research 

that also supports the future exploration activities. 

 There is a significant amount of work yet to be 

done on Station, a lot of facilities that will not have 

been utilized at all to their full extent that could be 

used a lot more, some of the combustion racks that will be 

going up, some of the earth observation racks that will be 

on board, the external pallet locations can be used. So I 

think there is a whole variety of research that we could go 

put in place and do that. 

 The reason we are looking for kind of an early 

indication of whether we are going to do that or not is so 

we can do more detailed planning for that research. So we 

really need to begin that detailed research planning now in 

this period of time. 
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 The cost would be roughly around, I think, a 

billion and a half per year for operations. That excludes 

the transportation cost for crew and cargo, and those would 

be in addition to that billion and a half. Those details, 

we will work as we continue to do other budget processes 

and we work with the review team. 

 MODERATOR: I should have told you this, but I 

think we have plenty of time. It looks like we have plenty 

of time based on the number of participants today. So, 

Seth, please, if you have a follow-up, go ahead. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: This is so unlike the others, 

where you are waiting and you have to come back. 

 So, when you are talking about wanting to know 

what type of -- you know, getting some kind of indication, 

what would you be doing? I mean, are you talking about 

contracts for new work or actually new -- would you be 

having to do actually something physically different? That 

is what I am trying to understand, what you would need to 

do. 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: I think the things we would be 

doing is, you know, right now we have some Space Act time 

with some National Lab partners, and what we would do is we 
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would -- if they knew the Space Station was going to be an 

extended period of time, that may change the kind of 

investigations they would like to do and what facilities 

they would want to use on Space Station. So it is not 

necessarily contracts or money, but it is more of a 

planning process with folks that might utilize Space 

Station, both people internal to NASA, as well as folks on 

the outside that are part of the National Lab. 

 We may even attract some other users to Space 

Station, some commercial companies that would be 

interested, that if the time frame is only between now and 

2015, that is a very different outlook to them if they have 

a research facility that they could use all the way from 

now until, say, 2020. That might influence dramatically 

what kind of research they want to go do and how they want 

to use Space Station. 

 So I think it is important for us to be able to 

tell them what we think the future is for Space Station and 

how much they can utilize it and use it in the future. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: And when you talk about 

commercial -- and forgive me for thinking this way, but all 

I could think of is sort of the space tourist. If you have 
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this extra time, would NASA want to get into the space 

tourism business like the Russians and maybe contract out, 

so you could charge $25 million for people to fly through 

NASA? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: When I think of commercial, I 

think of things maybe in the pharmaceutical area, maybe 

even in the antenna development area, maybe in some rocket 

engine test stuff, some optical sensor stuff. I think of 

those kind of things when I think of commercial. 

 What the Station offers that doesn't exist today 

is there is not a research facility where you can do 

pull-up space qualification of a component. Before you 

take a component and you put it on a commercial satellite 

or you use it in a commercial endeavor, Space Station would 

be available as a test facility to go bring out some of 

those problems. 

 We have seen, we have done some of that with our 

materials and space demonstrations today, where we have 

looked at various materials on the outside of Station. If 

there was a broader market there, there may be some other 

commercial users that would be interested to do other 

things. 
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 So, when I think commercial, I think more of 

aerospace companies and their ability to test equipment and 

hardware in space. 

 MODERATOR: Seth, we can come back around. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Sure. 

 MODERATOR: Let's go to Bill Harwood from CBS 

News. 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Bill, your line is 

open. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thank you. Bill Harwood, CBS. 

 I have a very quick question on AMS. I am still 

fuzzy about when that flight actually gets funded. Is that 

in this budget, or is that the next one? I'm sorry I am 

confused on that one. 

 Also, can you say anything at all about where AMS 

fits into the launch sequence? I know the Station guys 

want the last flight to be them, and I am wondering if 

there is a way to move AMS up before those. Thanks. 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: The funding for the AMS 

Shuttle flight is in this budget. It is in the 2010 

budget. You see a little bit of an upper in the Station 

number that accommodates that flight. It actually is a 
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little bigger than the number you see in the delta. We had 

some subtractions going on in the Shuttle program, but the 

total number is there for the AMS flight in this budget in 

the 2010. 

 In terms of where it fits in the sequence, it 

currently shows on our manifest as last. We will evaluate 

through this next couple months where the right place to 

put it is, and we will make sure that we work that with the 

right folks to optimize the overall goals that AMS wants to 

meet, as well as make sure we leave Station in the best 

posture when the Shuttle retires. 

 It shows it as last in the mission sequence, and 

we will evaluate over the next couple of months where the 

right place to put it is. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thanks. 

 And the only other question I had, Bill, was just 

a simple one. I am assuming that barring surprises, you 

guys, there is no more -- your funding is pretty well set 

for retirement, to fly the nine flights and then to be done 

with it. I mean, you don't anticipate having to come back 

later with any other hardware requirements. You are pretty 

 much there. 
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 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We have purchased all the 

hardware, or we are in the process of purchasing all the 

hardware to support the nine remaining flights, but we have 

got plans in place, and this budget fully supports the 

hardware needed for those nine flights. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay, thanks. 

 That is all I have got, Mike. 

 MODERATOR: Okay, Bill. Thank you. 

 Mark Mathews from the Orlando Sentinel. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thanks for doing this. 

 I had a quick question about, again, the Shuttle 

flights. This budget proposal eliminates that 2010 hard 

deadline that was in the summary that was released in 

February, but from what I am seeing and some of our Florida 

lawmakers are making noise about is that it only allocates 

about $382 million for the Space Shuttle in 2011. 

 If NASA is unable to finish those six Shuttle 

flights in fiscal year 2010, where is the funding going to 

come from for the flights, if they do get pushed back a few 

months? Thanks. 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Again, that would be worked 

when we start seeing those flights move somewhere else. 
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 Right now, the budget and the manifest supports 

us completing the flights by September of 2010, and we will 

see how the flights come this year and how they occur 

throughout the remainder of this year, and then we will see 

where we end up in the future. 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Okay. Our next 

question comes from Todd Halvorson. 

 MODERATOR: That is Todd Halvorson. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Yeah. Todd Halvorson of 

Florida Today. I have got a couple. 

 First of all, just back to the AMS mission, you 

mentioned that there was a number, a funding number 

associated with that mission in this budget. What is that 

number? What is it going to cost to fly AMS? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Approximately $300 million. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay, thanks. 

 Looking at the out years in 2011 and 2012, there 

is an increase from the '09 proposed budget, and I am 

wondering if you can talk a little bit about what is 

causing that increase. I would assume it is a cost of 

retaining personnel through the end of the program and 

disposing, if you will, of the orbiters. 
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 MR. GERSTENMAIER: It is one thing to transition 

in retirement. So it is the costs we see associated with 

essentially finalizing and closing down the program. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: And can you tell us at what 

point a decision will be made on where the three remaining 

orbiters are going to end up after the retirement of the 

prograM 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We have the RFI. We have 

gotten responses back to the RFI. We are evaluating those. 

 It will probably be through the summer before we actually 

get some kind of idea of where we are heading with the 

orbiter disposition. 

 We have committed one of the orbiters to go to 

the National Air and Space Museum. I believe it is 

Discovery. And then the other two, we are still -- we are 

looking at the RFIs. We are evaluating those, and we will 

have some discussions probably towards the end of the 

summer. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. Do you know how many 

RFIs you received? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: I don't have the -- what? 

 MODERATOR: We understood there were about 20, 
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Todd. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. And one last one from 

me, and that is, with this budget coming out, I was 

wondering if you have a revision associated with the 

drawdown of the workforce here at Kennedy Space Center. 

 I think when you last reported that, Congress, 

the estimated number of job losses here was about 3,500, 

and I am wondering if this new budget has caused any 

revision up or down in that number, and when the impact is 

going to hit. 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Again, we are still evaluating 

all of that. We have another update due to Congress here 

fairly soon. I think we will probably wait until some of 

this study activity gets done in the summer before we 

actually update those numbers. 

 I mean, it is still on that order, I think. I 

don't think there is a dramatic change, but we will 

continue to evaluate. 

 Most of the processing jobs in Florida stay until 

the very end of the Shuttle. So we use all the workforce 

to continue processing the Shuttle until the very last 

point. 
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 MODERATOR: Todd, we will come back around again. 

 Why don't we go to Rob Coppinger from Flight International 

Magazine. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Hello. The NASA Authorization 

Act required two reports, once it produced. One was on ISS 

exploitation to 2020 -- or certainly beyond 2015 -- and the 

other one was -- and that was to be delivered in July, and 

the other one to be delivered in October of this year is a 

Cargo Contingency Report looking at how cargo can be 

supplied if CRS doesn't deliver. Are you still going to do 

those reports with this review that is being launched, or 

will it be rolling to the review? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We still do those reports. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. And my second question 

is with the -- I understand there's been problems with the 

urine processing assembly on Station, and I understand from 

your documentation, your budget documentation, that 

recycling capability is quite important for six crew. When 

will you need to have the UPI up and running properly in 

order to be able to say that you can definitely start with 

six crew shortly? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We have evaluated that, and we 
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are okay to go ahead and start the six crew. We will do a 

formal review of that Flight Readiness Review for the Soyuz 

launch here in a couple of weeks, but we are okay with 

that, even without the urine processor being fully 

functional. 

 There is a check valve in there that is not 

operating correctly. We have a fairly simple fix to change 

out the check valve. It requires a tool to be launched to 

Space Station. It is a very small thing. It is about a 

three-eighths-inch bolt that we will actually use to screw 

into the check valve to remove the check valve assembly 

itself on the check valve, and we don't need it in the 

system. The system will be up and operating once we go do 

that. 

 So we will make that repair probably sometime 

after the 2JA flight getting back the full urine processor 

functionality, and we will be fine. And even if we go 

through almost all the summer without it working, we are 

okay with the six-person crew. 

 So it is not a big impact to us. We know the 

problem. We have seen it on the ground. We can easily 

repair it on orbit. We just need a tool to go do it, and 
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we will do it and get it done and be ready to move forward. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thanks. 

 MODERATOR: How about Becky Iannotta from Space 

News? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Hi, Bill. Thank you for doing 

this. 

 I had a question kind of to follow up on what you 

would have to do to extent the Space Station beyond 2015, 

and my question is more regarding Boeing, as your 

contractor right now for Station. Would you just need to 

simply extend that contract, or is that something you would 

look at and could possibly go out for a new bid on it? How 

would that work? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Again, we would go look at 

that and investigate what the right thing to do is with our 

contracts, and it is really more than just the Boeing 

contractor. It is several contractors with that. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We would look at each one. We 

would go through a contracting process to see if we could 

have justification for other than full and open competition 

for the contracts. We would figure out what the right 
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thing to do is. 

 We would also have to procure additional 

commercial transportation services. If you see our 

commercial resupply services contract, it runs through 

2015. We would have to extend that beyond the period. So 

we would have to do some kind of competition for commercial 

resupply services. 

 We also have the sparing of components and 

hardware. Those kind of items, we bought enough spares to 

go through 2015. We would have to buy some additional 

spares beyond that, so there would be some procurement 

activity associated with that. 

 We have some long lead item kind of things. The 

batteries on Station are nickel-hydrogen batteries. We 

will probably change that to a different technology. So we 

would like to start some investigation into the new 

technology batteries fairly soon, if we got the word that 

we were going to extend. 

 So, for the kind of things are we ever extending, 

support contracts would have to be reworked. We would have 

some of our logistics contracts that need to be reworked. 

We have some transportation contracts that need to be 
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reworked, as well as we need to do some of the planning for 

the payloads and the research that would be done on 

Station, and we also have to get agreements from our 

international partners on some support for Station as we go 

forward. So there is a substantial amount of work for us 

to get all this done, and that is kind of what drives the 

discussion and in our minds why need to decide fairly soon 

this year what the plan is for Space Station. So those are 

all the pieces that go into Space Station. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: What indication are you 

getting so far from the international partners? Are they 

in it of beyond 2015? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Again, I would rather not 

speak for them. We took a statement at the Heads of Agency 

last year, and in the statement, we said during this time 

frame, we would all go to our governments and talk about 

whether we wanted to extend Station. 

 I think, in general, from a technical standpoint, 

we all see significant benefit of Station continuing, as we 

discussed earlier. I talked about all the research we can 

do, the investigations that are out there. The potential 

is fairly large for Station. So I think we see a strong 
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potential. The question is do our governments, and do we 

need to work that with them and see where they are, but I 

don't want to talk for them. 

 I think the general flavor is there is a lot of 

potential here for station. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. Just one more question. 

 How far out do you need to get the contracts to support 

logistics and all those? Do you need a couple of years to 

get those? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Do you mean how long will it 

take us to actually do the procurement? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Yes. 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: They are phased in a little 

bit. I don't know when we would actually start them. We 

could probably do a procurement in about 18 to 24 months. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: So that is kind of the time 

frame. I would want to do planning before that. So, if 

you back all that up, it is probably three to four years 

out, we want to actually go do the process. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay, thank you. 

 MODERATOR: Okay. Thanks, Becky. 
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 How about we go to Irene Klotz from Reuters? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thanks. 

 Bill, is there any sense that if Station is 

extended, that this $1.5 billion-plus launch cost is going 

to come from another program, or are you all thinking that 

this is going to be a budget add at some point in the 

future? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: I have no idea. 

 MODERATOR: Anything else, Irene? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: No. Thanks. 

 MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you. 

 Let's go back around to Seth Borenstein from the 

Associated Press. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thanks. I appreciate it. 

 This may be sort of an old question now, but as 

of May 1, the restrictions on large-scale, you know, 

efforts that would go toward retirement of the Shuttle, you 

know, prohibit further flying are off. What are you doing, 

now that those prohibitions are off, and given the whole 

review and, you know, that gap is one of the issues, are 

you not going to do certain things because of the review, 

or are you going to just continue with those retirement 
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efforts? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Basically, we don't have 

funding to do anything much different than what we were 

before. So we are going to continue with those retirement 

efforts, kind of on the measured basis that's described 

several times to you. We don't really have any funding 

availability to do anything different in '09 and '10. So 

we are going to just continue on that planned phase-out of 

the Shuttle systems. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: So I guess the question is if 

the Augustine Commission comes out, out of left field, and 

says in August, "You know, we need to fly the Shuttle more 

often and more," will you have done anything between now 

and August will make that impossible? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Again, as we have talked 

about, the phase-out doesn't go from possible to impossible 

in a day. It is a gradual phase-out and becomes more 

difficult as you go through the period. 

 I talked to you before that there's things 

happening, but there is nothing that is a major broke that 

you couldn't fix somewhere in the future. So we have got 

time through the summer time frame. There is not a 
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make-or-break kind of decision coming up. There is no 

major event that's occurring, and I don't anticipate any 

really major event. It just occurs slowly over time. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Yeah. Thank you. 

 MODERATOR: James Dean from Florida Today. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Hi. First question is if 

flights do slip into 2010, you know, we have heard about 

the proposal for a possible additional $2.5 billion to be 

added that year, but I am just wondering what the range is 

that say only one mission fell into that year. Is there 

like a bottom end of the range in terms of cost, if you had 

to get more funding for that fiscal year, and then it 

increases each flight up to $2.5 billion? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: I think it really kind of 

comes down to how it occurs and when it occurs. So I can't 

really give you a budget number, per se. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay, thanks. 

 And just regarding AMS again, it has always had 

this qualifier of if it can be completed safely and 

affordably in calendar year 2010. So, obviously, that is 

your goal, but I just wanted to be sure I understood it, if 

that 2010 qualifier has really been eliminated, it is going 
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to be flown, whenever, assuming funding is there, or has 

anything changed there? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Again, I think that the 

qualifier is that we are going to fly the flight. 

 Again, I would say that all our flights have the 

safety, the hinge on them that we need to make sure we can 

accommodate them safely and there is not an issue with 

this. If we see or detect something in the Shuttle system 

that changes our ability to fly it safely, we will do what 

we need to go do. We take each flight one at a time and 

figure out where they are. 

 The budget constraints and considerations, those 

will get factored in once we see what happens, where things 

slide and things move with the manifest as we go forward, 

and it is kind of a function of when we know what happens, 

whether we have some kind of interruption this summer, or 

if it is later in the sequence. All of those are 

variables, and we will work all those cases, once we see 

what life brings us and in a way comes forward, but I think 

it is clear that the nine remaining flights are to be 

flown. If we can go get them flown, then we are going to 

do our best to fly them on a schedule that makes sense. 
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 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay, thanks. 

 And just one more question, if I may. I was 

wondering if this budget reflects any significant new 

measures that will be taken in the coming year to retain 

the Shuttle workforce through the end. 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: There is nothing specific in 

here beyond the plans that we have had in place for a 

period of years. So it still has some severance and 

retention provisions and some other things in there, but 

they are things we have worked out previously. 

 MODERATOR: Okay, James. Thank you. 

 Rob Coppinger is up next. He is the only person 

in the queue. So, if you have any other questions, please 

go ahead and get into the queue right now. Robert? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. Hello again. 

 The $150 million from the Investment Act -- 

Reinvestment Act that is being put towards the commercial 

side of things, it's been talked about being used, a part 

of that money as being used to accelerate the cargo 

flights, the Station. I assume they are talking about the 

work on the UCRS contracts to accelerate those cargo 

flights to help better understand what is needed for man 
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rating. Is that the case? Can we expect the cargo flights 

from Orbital and SpaceX to -- are you planning to help 

those arrive at Station earlier, and how much earlier? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We have been looking at some 

of the out-year flights and potentially moving some of 

those up a little bit, and the idea is to gain some more 

flight experience with those new rockets. 

 We also have some tasks to go look at, some 

reliability kind of tasks to go look at the systems 

reliability things that are on those contracts, and that 

will give us some more insight into the rockets that are 

being developed. 

 We have some stuff for maybe some additional 

testing lines and some more analysis in those areas. So we 

are going to figure out a way, along with the contractors, 

to do things that will help them be better prepared to use 

the cargo aspects of their rockets that show how they are 

ready to go do their crew aspects. So we are going to work 

with them and get the specifics. 

 One of the options, as you described, is to take 

some of the later flights, potentially move them up, but 

then there are other options under there to look at some 
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other things that we think would be beneficial to the 

commercial sector, and we will work with the commercial 

sector to figure out that specific thing. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. And going back to this 

slipping to fiscal year 2011, fiscal year 2011 budget, 

obviously that would be published in February 2010. So, 

are you getting any indication of by February 2010 of 

slippage into 2011? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: Your question, Rob, again? 

How is that? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Sorry I didn't explain that. 

So Shuttle missions, if you can't do all the Shuttle 

missions by the end of fiscal year 2010 and it is going and 

you need to do a couple of Shuttle missions in fiscal year 

2011, the fiscal year 2011 budget, of course, is published 

in February 2010. So is it plausible that you can -- would 

you think you would be in a position -- based on slippage 

in the past, do you think you would be in a position, so 

that you could be in a position to know if you will require 

extra monies in the FY2011 budget in order to ask for those 

monies to be put into the FY2011 budget in order to fly out 

the remaining Shuttle missions? 
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 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We will clearly have more 

insight by the time we get to February 2010 on how we are 

doing, and we will do the appropriate things in the next 

budget, submit the right thing to go do. So I think we 

will see how this manifest plays out in the near term, and 

then we will do the right thing as we go forward. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay. Am I still the only 

person in the queue? 

 MODERATOR: No. Todd Halvorson has joined in the 

queue. 

 Do you have any more questions, Rob? 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Yeah, actually one last 

question. 

 Permanent MPLM. Is that still being considered 

as a possibility? You might leave an MPLM up at Station? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We are thinking about it 

again. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Okay, thanks. 

 MODERATOR: Thanks, Rob. 

 Todd, go ahead. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Todd Halvorson of Florida 

Today. 
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 Bill, with only nine Shuttle missions remaining 

and crews assigned for, I believe, the majority of those at 

this point, is there any plan for a drawdown in the 

Astronaut Office, and if so, could you kind of describe 

what that plan is? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: We are still pretty busy 

supporting Space Station after that time period. In fact, 

the additional crews that we have on board Station will 

keep us with some astronauts flying in that time frame. 

 We also use the Astronaut Office to do a lot of 

work in our development of new vehicles. So they will be 

pretty actively supporting the CEV development activity and 

the things that are going forward. In fact, they are 

today. 

 There will be some test flights and some test 

demonstrations and some training exercises that will start 

showing up in those time frames that the Crew Office will 

be supporting. 

 So I think there is a new astronaut class that is 

getting ready to be selected here, and we are doing that 

kind of with an eye towards the Space Station flights. In 

fact, we need some more astronauts in the Space Station 
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classes to go support those. 

 So we have kind of looked at all that. I think 

there will be a little bit of a drawdown, but it may not be 

as much as you would anticipate when you look at all the 

activities and tests and things that need to be supported 

by the Astronaut Office. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: If I could follow that real 

quickly, do you anticipate that that drawdown would be 

taken care of through normal attrition, or do you imagine 

that there would actually be layoffs in that office? 

 MR. GERSTENMAIER: I think we will see it through 

natural attrition. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thanks. 

 MODERATOR: Okay. That's it for questions today. 

 Thank you very much for participating, and one more time, 

a reminder that if you missed any of this and/or you want a 

replay, you can dial toll free, 888-566-0435, or 

402-998-0605, about an hour after this call ends, and that 

audio should be available for about the next 30 days. 

 Once again, thank you, and take care. 

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