Trump seeks extra $1.6 bln in NASA spending under goal of returning to moon (updated)

Mustang Minerals

14/05/2019 24:19

(Adds comments from NASA officials, former Obama space adviser,
details of proposal)
    By Joey Roulette
    WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - The Trump administration
asked Congress on Monday to increase NASA spending next year by
an extra $1.6 billion as a "down payment" to accommodate the
accelerated goal of returning Americans to the surface of the
moon by 2024.
    The increased funding request, announced by President Donald
Trump on Twitter, comes nearly two months after Vice President
Mike Pence declared the objective of shortening by four years
NASA's previous timeline for putting astronauts back on the moon
for the first time since 1972.
    The proposed increase would bring NASA's total spending
level for the 2020 fiscal year to $22.6 billion. The bulk of the
increase is earmarked for research and development for a human
lunar landing system, according to a summary provided by NASA.
    "Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to
greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars," Trump
tweeted on Monday. "I am updating my budget to include an
additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG
WAY!"
    NASA previously aimed to return crewed spacecraft to the
lunar surface by the year 2028, after first putting a "Gateway"
station into orbit around the moon by 2024.
    The newly accelerated goal - an endeavor likely to cost tens
of billions of dollars - comes as NASA has struggled with the
help of private partners to resume human space missions from
U.S. soil for the first time since the shuttle program ended in
2011.
    NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called the revised
funding request a "down payment of confidence" from the White
House.
    "Our goal here is to build a program that gets us to the
moon as soon as possible," Bridenstine told reporters on a
telephone conference call late on Monday. 
    "In the coming years, we will need additional funds," he
said. "But this is a good amount that gets us out of the gate in
a very strong fashion."
    Phil Larson, a former space policy adviser under Trump's
Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama, questioned
whether Congress had fully embraced Trump's ambition to speed up
human lunar exploration.
    "I’m worried that without proper congressional buy-in, this
budget amendment is at best, a massive waste of time, and at
worst, pushing risky political timelines that could set NASA
back for years," Larson told Reuters.
    "The next leap in space will be fueled by commercial
companies changing the way we do business in space while
creating new technologies and innovations," he said.
    
    SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM
    Bridenstine said $651 million of the extra funding would go
toward NASA's Space Launch System — the super-heavy rocket whose
decade-long development led by Boeing Co  BA.N  has been
hampered by delays and cost overruns — as well as design and
construction of the Orion crew capsule.
    The U.S. Apollo program, NASA's forerunner to the effort at
returning humans to Earth's natural satellite, tallied six
manned missions to the moon from 1969 to 1972.
    So far, only two other nations have conducted controlled
"soft" landings on the moon - the former Soviet Union and China.
But those were with unmanned robot vehicles.
    Bridenstine said he was optimistic that Trump's request
would draw bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
    The amendment envisions a simplified blueprint for the Lunar
Gateway, the planned space outpost in lunar orbit that will
serve as a stepping stone for sending crewed spacecraft to the
moon's surface.
    NASA officials said they would turn to private companies
such as Lockheed Martin Corp  LMT.N , Boeing and Jeff Bezos'
Blue Origin for proposals on the design of Gateway and the human
landing system. 
    Bezos, the richest person in the world and founder of
Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O , last Thursday unveiled his space
company's mock-up of a lunar lander being built by Blue Origin,
the latest company after Lockheed Martin and Boeing to do so.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N22L1KK   
    

 (Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington; Editing by Steve
Gorman and Peter Cooney)
 ((steve.gorman@thomsonreuters.com; 213-955-6761; Reuters
Messaging: steve.gorman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))