NASA

The Administration’s FY 2008 budget request for NASA totals $17.309 billion (3.9 percent increase from the FY06 appropriation) and is distributed across six directorates and offices.

• Science - $5.516 billion (5.18 percent increase from FY06 appropriation) to conduct scientific exploration that is enabled by access to space or near-space in pursuit of a science plan with four broad goals or themes: earth science; planetary science; heliophysics; and, astrophysics.
• Exploration Systems - $3.924 billion (28.6 percent increase) to pursue the president’s goal of returning humans to the moon, landing on Mars and venturing beyond.
• Aeronautics Research - $554 million (38 percent reduction) to expand the boundaries of aeronautical knowledge.
• Cross-Agency Support - $489.2 million (8.3 percent reduction) to support education programs, advanced business systems, innovative partnerships and shared capability assets.
• Space Operations - $6.792 billion (1.7 percent reduction) to provide and support space exploration services through the Space Shuttle and International Space Station.
• Inspector General - $34.6 million (8.1 percent increase) to prevent and detect crime, fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement within the agency.

Cross-Agency Support Programs

NASA’s Education programs support a variety of science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives, with the goal of preparing a future NASA workforce. Examples include Higher Education programs (which includes EPSCoR); Space Grants; Minority Undergraduate Research and Education Project; and the NASA E-Education Project. The F08 request would provide $153.7 million to the theme, a cut of 5.4 percent from the FY06 appropriation level. According to the NASA budget summary, the cut is a redirection of funds “to address higher priority NASA mission requirements.”

 

The Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) leverages technology and capabilities for NASA through joint partnerships with industry, academia, other government agencies and national laboratories. IPP includes NASA’s SBIR/STTR programs, the IPP Seed Fund, Innovation Incubator, technology transfer and intellectual property management, and new partnership opportunities. With a $198.1 million FY08 budget request, IPP’s funding would decline 7.8 percent from the FY06 appropriation level. Selected FY08 program funding requests include:

• NASA SBIR - $127.1 million
• NASA STTR - $15.3 million
• Technology Transfer Partnerships - $33.3 million
• Centennial Challenges - $4 million

Science Directorate

The FY08 request would provide $428.5 million for the Earth Science Research Program, which provides competitively awarded grants for basic research and modeling efforts to improve the capability to: document the global distribution environmental parameters related to the Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and land surface; understand the processes that drive and connect them; and, improve predictive capabilities for the future evolution of the Earth system, including climate, weather, and natural hazards.

 

With a $23.5 million FY08 budget, the Earth Science Education and Outreach Program would seek to make the discoveries and knowledge generated from NASA's Earth-observing satellites and scientific research (including applied science) accessible to students, teachers and the public. The office supports fellowships, new investigators, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities.

 

The Heliophysics Research Program, with FY08 funding of $206.1 million, would undertake scientific investigations utilizing operational space-based and suborbital platforms (surface, balloon, aircraft and rocket).

 

The Planetary Science Research Program develops theoretical tools and laboratory data needed to analyze flight data, makes possible new and better instruments to fly on future missions, and analyzes the data returned. The program would receive $370.5 million in FY08.

 

Aeronautics Research Directorate

The Directorate conducts cutting-edge research that produces concepts, tools and technologies that enable the design of vehicles that fly safely through any atmosphere at any speed. The FY08 budget request for the Directorate is $554 million. Significant reductions are planned in the three core research areas of aeronautics safety (50 percent cut from FY06 appropriation), airspace systems (44 percent cut), and fundamental aeronautics (50 percent cut), while an $88.4 million fourth theme, aeronautics testing, is added.