[Satellite News 01-25-10] U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), chair of the U.S. Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, is pushing back against President Obama’s proposed 2010 fiscal year NASA budget due to its provision of $200 million in funding to outsource manned space exploration missions to commercial companies, the congresswoman’s office released Jan. 22.
   The White House proposal outlines NASA’s 2010 budget at approximately $18.7 billion, of which approximately $200 million will be set aside for companies like COTS contract winners SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to take up NASA’s manned space mission work once the Space Shuttle retires this year.
   During a subcommittee hearing in December, Giffords claimed that the initiative will cost a least $3.5 billion over the next five years. “Unless Congress makes the NASA budget a higher priority, there won’t be enough money for robust manned exploration efforts of any kind … “U.S. human space flight could be on hold for the foreseeable future,” said Giffords.
   Gifford’s office could not be reached for comment.
   According to the Obama administration’s NASA budget proposal, the goal of the commercial space launch funding program is to set up a multi-year initiative to allow private firms and start-ups to compete to build and operate manned spacecraft. The budget also provides financial incentives for increased NASA involvement in climate-monitoring and environmental projects, as well as for seeking international cooperation for both manned and unmanned programs.
   The was co-sponsored by a presidential space advisory panel created in 2009 and chaired by former Lockheed Martin Chairman Norman Augustine. The panel advised the president that, “allowing companies to build and launch their own rockets and spacecraft to carry American astronauts into orbit would save money and also free up NASA to focus on more ambitious, longer-term goals,” according to a White House statement.
   Funding private commercial launch companies out of NASA’s own budget faces political opposition. U.S. Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) is sponsoring an alternative bill that would extend NASA shuttle launches through 2015. In a statement, Posey said that his bill would save 7,000 jobs related to NASA’s shuttle program. “Extending the shuttle program is better [for jobs] than any other stimulus spending.”
  However, Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) President and CEO Marion Blakey said that the U.S. commercial space industry would lose more jobs without government support. “As space launch capabilities have been developed by other nations our share of commercial launches has decreased significantly. Further loss of our commercial launch share could impact civil and national security payloads because the same U.S. companies also launch under government contracts,” said Blakey.
   Safety and risk assessment are also a concern for backers of Posey’s bill. A U.S. Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel report, released earlier this month, opposed extending the flight schedule "significantly" without a full recertification, saying the risk "is more than we should ask astronauts to shoulder."
   U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.) echoed safety concerns. “None of us want to let go of the shuttle program. But at the end of the day, we are going to enter a new phase of exploration, so we have to be advancing that,” Kosmas said in a statement.
   The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a stern warning to congress in December that not having a comprehensive U.S. national space launch strategy and unified oversight council would obstructing the domestic commercial launch industry’s ability to grow and compete.
   “According to the [U.S.] National Academy of Sciences, aligning the strategies of the various civil and national security space agencies will address many current issues arising from or exacerbated by the current uncoordinated, overlapping, and unilateral strategies,” GAO Director Gerald Dillingham said in the report.