http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/space/1611102
House conservatives this week gave NASA an unexpected boost, proposing to increase the space agency's 2003 budget by $300 million more than the Bush administration's request. But the international space station would see none of it. Rather, the House proposed to cut $781.5 million from human spaceflight programs -- work done at Houston's Johnson Space Center and several other NASA centers. The House-proposed increase -- $100 million more than the Senate offered -- would go toward space sciences, aerospace technology, microgravity research and nuclear jet propulsion. Not surprisingly, certain Texas lawmakers are worried, particularly because NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has been mum to Congress on his intentions when it comes to Johnson. "As long as we don't have people at NASA saying to Congress, `We need this,' then we have problems," said Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Beaumont, whose district includes Johnson. The only Houston-area member on the House Appropriations Committee, where matters of the purse are decided, is Rep. Tom DeLay, the House majority whip from Sugar Land. But even he said Congress has to think more creatively about the space station's embarrassing budget problems and cost overruns. DeLay did secure at least $30 million for NASA's National Space Biomedical Research Institute, which is housed at Baylor College of Medicine. That's well above the Senate's allocation and Bush's request. Overall, the House would allot $15.3 billion for NASA, which is still less than a 1 percent increase over last year and well below the inflation rate. Bush had sought even less for the agency. And he has made it clear that NASA's budget will remain trim, despite pressures on the agency to take on a more diverse agenda. Figures kept by the White House budget office show NASA's funding will remain flat through 2007, the last year for which budget projections are available. Yet, lawmakers with NASA centers in their home states are making more demands on the space agency. For example, the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing last week to showcase the need for a substantial federal investment in tracking asteroids and developing nuclear jet propulsion technology -- which holds possibilities for helping to redirect asteroids headed for Earth. The subcommittee's Republican chairman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher -- whose state of California has four NASA centers, two of which do asteroid and propulsion work -- invoked images of Armageddon to make his points. Expert witnesses, responding to his questions, testified that if any one of three large meteors barely missing Earth in the last few years had actually struck Southern Califonia, "everyone would have died." And the experts said even a small asteroid landing in the Atlantic or Pacific would drown coastal states under a 1,000-foot wall of water. Proponents of shifting NASA's focus to asteroids hope such strong images will propel the administration to realign its priorities in the coming months. The pressure is expected to pit supporters of NASA's programs against each other, a prospect that troubles champions of the space station and its scientific research potential. "You can't take a research program and turn if off one year and on the next," said Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, a member of NASA's advisory council and Congress' most vocal NASA supporter before he retired in 1994. He said despite the project's budget problems and enormous cost overruns, the station has a limited lifespan and should be utilized now. To shelve it even temporarily would be a waste of the investment already made, he added. Even within human space travel programs, NASA is being tugged in several directions. Johnson Space Center lost its contract to complete the X-38, an emergency evacuation vehicle that would have increased the space station's capacity to seven astronauts instead of three. Lampson suspects that the new vehicle, to be developed for multipurpose use -- perhaps even for carrying missiles -- will not be built at Johnson. Rather, he said it may go to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The Alabama delegation is made up of "very organized and tight-knit members of Congress" who "play their politics" better than the Houston delegation, Lampson said. "One or two or three of us is not enough to make sure Johnson Space Center gets its share," he added. "We need the strong and active support of Tom DeLay." Lampson said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is able to influence the appropriations process on the Senate side. But he said DeLay has the power to "almost by himself turn things our way." DeLay countered that he is using his power to help Johnson: "I'm the guy that's saving human spaceflight programs. I'm the one getting upgrades on the shuttle. Particular people in the Houston delegation only look at line items (earmarking funds) and keeping people working. There are different ways of bringing in money." DeLay offered no specifics. But officials at NASA have suggested greater privatization of the space station and sharing part of its mission with the Pentagon. xponent Lets Roll Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
