Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) sent letters on Friday to Dr. John Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House and Charles Bolden, Jr., NASA Administrator, requesting an increase in NASA’s 2010 budget in order to facilitate the research and development necessary to ensure continued mission success. The letter follows the release of the Summary Report of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee. 

The full text of the letter to Doctor Holdren follows:

September 25, 2009

Dr. John P. Holdren

Director

Office of Science and Technology Policy

Executive Office of the President

1650 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest

Washington, DC 20502 - 0002

Dear Dr. Holdren,

As you begin work on shaping the future of the U.S. human space flight program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) following the release of the Summary Report of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, I urge you to take this opportunity to recommend that NASA revitalize its research and technology efforts and capabilities that were so badly damaged under the previous Administration.  With respect for the difficult funding constraints that govern your recommendations, I make the following fiscal requests in the wake of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee recommendation for an additional $3 billion infusion annually above the Fiscal Year 2010 budget profile.

The Summary Report of the Review of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee sends a clear signal that there must be a significant increase in funding levels to NASA in order for the agency to meet the goals mandated by the President and Congress.  The Committee’s conclusion that under the current budget profile, NASA cannot have a meaningful human space flight program is deeply troubling and has major implications for the future of nation as well as NASA and its workforce.  I strongly support the Committee’s recommendation to raise NASA funding to $22 billion by FY2012.  

I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of the importance of research and development (R&D) in the space program that you highlighted in your Senate confirmation hearings.  In light of this recognition and of the conclusions that the Augustine Commission outlined in their Summary Report, it is clear there must be a rededication of resources and investment in NASA’s in-house R&D programs.  The severe lack of R&D funding has undermined NASA’s ability to maintain its core in-house intellectual competencies necessary for future mission success.  Full support of an in-house R&D program is critical to continue NASA’s legacy as the premier R&D agency in the world and to maintain the U.S. role as a global leader in human space flight.  

I am furthermore deeply concerned that the Committee’s support for a targeted expansion of commercial space ventures will be abused to improperly privatize properly governmental functions within NASA’s human space exploration program.  In particular, any call for the further outsourcing of NASA’s greatest asset – its civil-servant technical staff – must be rejected.  NASA’s civil-service workforce has already been downsized by more than half since the highly successful Apollo era.  Any further outsourcing would cripple the Agency’s ability to meet its research and technology development milestones and to properly oversee any successful rocket design, development, and testing program.

More specifically, in order to implement the Augustine recommendations, I ask that you support the following specific funding proposals for NASA’s FY2011 budget:  

• A budget for Aeronautics of $728 million in FY2011 to provide $50 million in real growth over the current baseline, increasing to $824 million in FY2012. This will restore funding to levels prior to the decline of Aeronautics funding over the past 4 years and will allow NASA to create a strong, new, innovative aviation program that minimizes aviation’s environmental impact with a budget of $200 million in FY2011 and $275 million in FY2012.

• Move the Advanced Capabilities program into its own new, independent Advanced Research and Technology Office with a budget of at least $800 million in FY2011, increasing to $1.3 billion in FY2012.  Management of these long-lead research programs should be made physically and administratively independent of the potentially undermining influence of any near-term operational goals by placing the research program offices at Research Centers.  In particular, this new Office should:

o Reinstate a Microgravity Science program with an initial budget of $50 million in FY2011 by splitting off, consolidating, and revitalizing Physical Science activities currently under Exploration Technology Development Program (EDTP). 

o Create a true Space Life Science program with an initial budget of $250 million in FY2011 by consolidating all Space Biological research currently in the Exploration Technology Development and Human Research Programs, and by shifting the focus towards longer-lead, fundamental and applied research in support of both exploration-enabled space biology and biotechnology and exploration-enabling human-health countermeasures.

o Revitalize the Exploration Technology Development Program with an initial budget of $500M in FY2011 in order to expand and rebalance the current limited Orion-Ares-focused portfolio, with new projects in space propulsion, space power generation and storage, space communication systems, space-environmental interactions, cryogenics, and sensors.

NASA’s research centers, such as the NASA Glenn Research Center in Brook Park, Ohio, perform the critical fundamental and applied Aerospace research at NASA and develop innovative spaceflight systems and technologies that enable the current and future exploration of space.  Healthy aeronautics and space R&D programs must once again be the cornerstone of NASA’s high-risk, high-payoff activities, while also preserving NASA’s core capabilities.  As the Augustine Committee made clear, such advanced R&D programs are essential for enabling a new era in extended U.S. human space exploration beyond low-earth orbit.

 

We must heed the Augustine Summary Report’s sobering warning that any meaningful human spaceflight program is not possible if NASA continues to be funded at the currently projected levels and continues to neglect long-lead R&D.  The Administration’s response is of the upmost importance, not only to the future of NASA, but also to the nation.  

Thank you for consideration of my request.  

Sincerely,

Dennis J. Kucinich

Member of Congress

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