House Appropriators On NASA FY 2020 Budget
Appropriations Committee Releases Fiscal Year 2020 Commerce-Justice-Science Funding Bill
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – NASA is funded at $22.32 billion, $815 million above the 2019 enacted level. This funding includes:
– $7.16 billion for NASA Science programs – $255.6 million above the fiscal year 2019 enacted level.
– $123 million for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Engagement, $13 million above fiscal year 2019 and rejecting the Administration’s request to eliminate funding for these programs, which help inspire and train the country’s future STEM workforce.
– $5.1 billion for Exploration – $79.1 million above the fiscal year 2019 enacted level. This includes funding to continue the development of the Orion crew vehicle, Space Launch System, and related ground systems.
No cuts to NASA Science! That’s the news I wanted to read.
The best thing NASA could do with all those millions for STEM is purchase a bunch of scholarships to Space Camp and Space Academy here at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, AL. We are fully booked for 2019 but could open up some slots for 2020 and beyond if we knew these young folks were coming. Not a dollar would be wasted and the students would come out energized and educated, ready to be all they can be not only in aerospace professions, robotics, and cyber jobs but as eager supporters of the movement into space as future taxpayers.
There are many worthy STEM programs that inspire and educate students about aerospace. I’m a graduate and fan of the Alabama Space Camp, but it seems a bit short-sighted (and self-serving) to suggest that sending them $123M is the best thing NASA could do with their education budget. Education and inspiration is not a one-sized-fits-all cookie cutter. We need to reach students of all ages, genders, ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds and diverse interests – not just those who are turned on by the history of manned spaceflight and getting spun around in theme-park rides. Your Academy and Camp are great for reaching students who want to become astronauts like in the good ole days, but not everyone is inspired by this aspect of NASA. Doing something like this would reinforce and perpetuate the status quo – which has led us nowhere. Also – tax-payer dollars can not be spent developing marketing and advocacy programs or “movements” to lobby for future agency funding or direction. Imagine if the Department of the Interior spent $100’sM putting kids through camps to become park rangers, with the goal of convincing them to lobby for more public lands as tax-payers? Certainly a noble effort to some, but not an appropriate use of public funds. Maybe if we aligned the space program with the needs of the public, instead of trying to convince the public it needs the space program we like giving them (because it pays for our salaries), we wouldn’t need to spend their own money to convince them to give up more!
This $22.3 billion in 2019 = $2.88 billion in 1966, which is roughly half of NASA’s budget that year; the peak in NASA appropriations in its 61 year history, and still 3 years from landing on the Moon. I really wonder where we all think this will go or end up?
So Lunar 2024 is already dead? Zero money for the lunar lander?
“This year’s CJS funding bill rejects the inadequate and damaging proposals in the Trump Administration’s budget requests, …”
To be fair. NASA didn’t give any details on how much and how long to fund the proposes manned Lunar landing operations. The CJS is not going to give a blank check for this mostly vanity project.