Overall research and development accounts for $4.4 billion of the NASA budget request, up 33 percent from this year’s $3.3 billion. The largest share is the $967 million sought for the space station, which received $392 million this year. Other features of the NASA budget request were an increase from $52 million to $84 million for NASA’s participation in the transatmospheric research for the hypersonic aerospace plane project, and a five-fold increase, from $20 million to $102 million, for research on global geospace science. Funds for the Mars Observer are projected to nearly double, to $102 million.
Congressional sources within the space committees praise the NASA request as “excellent,” but say it will have a tough time winning approval. A $1 billion request for activities related to the space shuttle, they noted, which enjoys strong support, could jeopardize increases for smaller science programs.
The new technology effort, christened Pathfinder, is...
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
