Budget: Now what?

[radarredux]

Assuming the House Appropriations Subcommittee budget cuts to NASA holds, it seems that there is an awful lot up in the air. Below are a couple of my questions. If anyone has any answers or additional questions, please follow up.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">(1)</font>Was the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) funded?<br /><br /><br /><font color="yellow">(2)</font>Given the CEV for FY 2005 was effectively killed, will this mean that there will be an even longer gap between the end of the shuttle (around 2010) and the time that the US will be able to launch humans to ISS?<br /><br />[note: sand chart budget shows US exiting funding for the ISS by the end of FY15, but CEV isn't supposed to be operational until 2014 (now pushed back a year to 2015?) -- it seems that almost the entire time the ISS is actually operational the US won't be able to fly there. Weird]<br /><br /><br /><font color="yellow">(3)</font>The shuttle was funded at its fully requested level, but just this week NASA said the repairs were going to cost a lot more than originally estimated ($112-412 million for FY05 according to SDC). How are these additional repair costs figured into the approved budget?<br /><br /><br /><font color="yellow">(4)</font>What, if any, of the new exploration vision was funded?<br /><br /><br /><font color="yellow">(5)</font>Any signs that Pres. Bush [will] step forward and defend his exploration initiative?

 

[blacknebula]

"Was the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) funded? "<br /><br />Unsure...its part of the vision, but its also space science.<br /><br />" Given the CEV for FY 2005 was effectively killed, will this mean that there will be an even longer gap between the end of the shuttle (around 2010) and the time that the US will be able to launch humans to ISS? "<br /><br />Yup<br /><br />"The shuttle was funded at its fully requested level, but just this week NASA said the repairs were going to cost a lot more than originally estimated ($112-412 million for FY05 according to SDC). How are these additional repair costs figured into the approved budget?"<br /><br />I believe that additional savings from down time will figure in, and that future budgets will cover the funding.<br /><br />"What, if any, of the new exploration vision was funded? "<br /><br />They say Mars programs were funded. Of course that is probably robotics, so my answer would be no.<br /><br />"Any signs that Pres. Bush step forward and defend his exploration initiative? "<br /><br />If I read correctly, he will talk about and defend his initiative in a speech tommorrow.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />