WASHINGTON � NASA announced the cancellation of a planned mission to the jovian moon Europa but also unveiled a new series of planetary exploration probes during a Feb. 4 briefing on the agency�s 2003 budget request.
The termination of the Europa Orbiter mission was among the surprises in U.S. President George W. Bush�s budget request, which would provide $15 billion to NASA next year, a 1.4 percent increase over 2002.
NASA Administrator Sean O�Keefe said the request supports the Bush administration�s goal of refocusing NASA on research and development and addressing management shortcomings. �We�ll have no difficulty whatsoever defending the content of this budget and I am confident the Congress will see it that way as well,� O�Keefe told reporters at the briefing at NASA headquarters here.
The budget includes modest increases for all major NASA enterprises except for human space flight. If Bush�s budget is approved, the space shuttle and international space station programs would see their budgets decline by $624 million collectively.
The budget supports four space shuttle missions to the space station each year. Additional shuttle missions for activities such as Hubble Space Telescope servicing would have to be added to the mix and funded as the need emerges, NASA officials said.
Documents accompanying Bush�s 2003 budget request, released by the White House Office of Management and Budget Feb. 4, highlight NASA�s Outer Planets, international space station and space shuttle upgrade programs as �ineffective� and in need of reform.
For example, the budget documents say the Outer Planets program, which included plans to send spacecraft to Pluto and Europa �cannot be implemented as planned because some mission cost and schedule estimates have nearly doubled.�
NASA cited excessive cost growth in canceling the Europa Orbiter mission and for the second straight year the agency is not requesting funding for the New Horizon�s Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission. Funding for the Pluto mission was inserted into NASA�s 2002 budget by Congress.
The Outer Planets program is being reformulated into what NASA is calling the New Frontiers program. New Frontiers missions will be capped at $650 million and have development cycle times of 48 months.
Each New Frontiers mission will be selected through an open, peer-reviewed competition modeled after NASA�s Discovery series of planetary missions. The Bush administration held up the Discovery program as one of the few effective ones at NASA.
NASA space science chief Ed Weiler said the agency will issue its first New Frontiers announcement of opportunity this spring, with selection targeted for 2003.
In Earth science, the Bush administration has decreed that imagery that for decades has been collected by NASA�s Landsat satellites will be procured commercially in the future. That means NASA cannot buy a spacecraft to replace Landsat 7, which was launched in April 1999.
Ghassem Asrar, NASA�s associate administrator for Earth Science, said NASA has four proposals under evaluation for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission and plans to pick two or three finalists this summer.
Also announced at the briefing was a NASA plan to resume a long-suspended pursuit of new in-space propulsion systems, including nuclear-powered systems. In addition, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy will resume production of radioisotope thermo-electric generators, which provide power for deep space missions.
NASA also plans to significantly increase its spending on advanced launch vehicle technologies under the Space Launch Initiative. Funded at $467 million in 2002, the Space Launch Initiative would receive $769 million in 2003.
At the same time, however, NASA requested no funding to continue work on the X-38, a prototype crew rescue vehicle for the international space station. The White House directed NASA to evaluate whether the Space Launch Initiative might yield a space station crew rescue vehicle. The White House also directed NASA to evaluate non-U.S. options for performing the crew rescue mission.
