The debate over America’s human presence in space has begun.
Since the start of the Obama Administration, NASA’s emphasis has altered dramatically, as financial support for exploration and space operations, including human flight, has been slashed by 7.9%. Meanwhile, earth science, including both legitimate research as well as questionable endeavors primarily designed to bolster the President’s climate change agenda, experienced a 41% increase. A General Accounting Office study found that “NASA had not matched resources to requirements” for programs related to human space flight.
In addition to funding shifts, ideological changes were imposed as well. NASA chief Charles Bolden made a bizarre remark . in 2010 that one of NASA’s chief goals was to reach out to Moslems.
Critics have not hidden their disdain for the course NASA has been given under the current White House. John L. Casey, a former White House space policy advisor, stated in a recent exclusive interview on the Vernuccio/Novak Report that NASA was engaging in “data doctoring” to support global warming theory advocates and essentially ignoring its core mission.
Human space flight was essentially removed from NASA’s short-term goals in 2010 when Mr. Obama cancelled the Constellation program,after prematurely ending the space shuttle program. The U.S. remains dependent on Russia to place astronauts in space. While underfunded work very slowly proceeds on plans for the future Orion crewed vehicle and the related Space Launch System, both are essentially updates on concepts originally designed in the late 1960’s and do not represent a significant path for a return to American preeminence in space. Neither of these efforts will actually be capable of putting astronauts in space, if ever, until after the Obama Administration leaves office.
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The White House counters criticism by stating their support for NASA’s manned space efforts, emphasizing its support ($438.8 increase requested) for development of commercially operated spacecraft, part of a modest $519 million hike in the agency’s overall budget. However, the Orion and Space Launch System programs, which are the only significant NASA efforts to restore America’s ability to put astronauts into space, would endure a combined $2.8 billion reduction in the 2016 budget.
House Science Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-Texas), quoted in Spacenews, noted “The President’s words mean nothing if crucial priorities such as SLS and Orion aren’t given the funding they need in his budget request.”
Following the Republican capture of the Senate in the 2014 elections, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx) was named as chair of the Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness. He is seeking to re-emphasize NASA’s original mission, and noted, at the start of hearings on NASA’s 2016 budget:
“As we begin the process of putting a road map together for the future of NASA there is one vital question that this committee should examine. Should NASA focus primarily inwards or outwards beyond lower-Earth orbit? Since the end of the last administration we have seen a disproportionate increase in the amount of federal funds that have been allocated to the Earth Science program at the expense of and compared to Exploration and Space Operations, Planetary Science, Heliophysics and Astrophysics which I believe are all rooted in exploration and should be central to the core mission of NASA.”