The state’s congressional delegation today presented a united, bipartisan front in defense of NASA, saying President Obama’s compromise on his space budget doesn’t go far enough and calling upon him to visit Johnson Space Center.
Meeting with the media in the shadow of a massive Saturn V rocket like those that blasted Apollo astronauts to the moon, Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and four Houston-area representatives said America must not lose its capability of launching U.S. astronauts into space.
President Obama has submitted a budget to Congress that directs NASA to abandon its efforts to develop an Earth-to-orbit rocket. Under the plan NASA would rely on Russia to launch Americans to the International Space Station for the next few years, eventually to be supplanted by commercial rocket providers.
Since releasing his budget proposal in February President Obama has received criticism from space advocates in Texas, Florida and elsewhere, former astronauts such as Neil Armstrong, and Texas lawmakers from across the political spectrum.
“I don’t want to walk away from what we have invested and try to turn it over to people who are going to start from scratch,” Hutchison said. “That is not a sound proposal.”
The president moved to mollify some of the criticism in a speech Thursday at Kennedy Space Center during which he outlined moves to reduce Florida job losses due to the end of the space shuttle program, and restored a piece of NASA’s Constellation program — a down-sized Orion capsule — that was eliminated in his initial budget.
The Texas congressional delegation welcomed the hint of compromise but said it did not go far enough.
“We still have a long way to go before I feel comfortable with what we’re going to do for the American people and Johnson Space Center,” said Rep. Gene Green, a Houston Democrat. “The Texas delegation is united. Democrat and Republican, we’re working together.”
The politicians expressed concern that Obama chose to make his speech in Florida, rather than Texas, and noted that the compromises outlined by the president largely benefit Florida and Colorado, two swing states won by the president in 2008. Texas voted overwhelmingly for Republican John McCain.
Rep. Pete Olson, a Republican whose district includes Johnson Space Center, urged the president to visit Houston to understand the potential losses to U.S. spaceflight capabilities. He and the others vowed to continue to press Obama for further concessions.
“We will use every legislative, legal and political tool at our disposal,” said Rep. John Culberson, a Republican. “There truly is virtually no support for the president’s budget in Congress.”
Each Texas politician also expressed continued support for Constellation, NASA’s plan to develop rockets to blast astronauts both to the space station and the moon, as well as a spacecraft, Orion, in which to carry them. NASA has spent about $9 billion on Constellation, which is managed in Houston.
A presidential panel appointed by Obama to study Constellation last year said the program was under-funded, and that even with an additional $3 billion a year it probably would not be ready to carry astronauts to the space station until 2017, and wouldn’t put humans back on the moon until the mid-2020s.
Hutchison said that, like the president, Congress would be willing to compromise on Constellation, a Bush-era program twice approved by the House and Senate.
“There are several ways to skin this cat and we want to look at a way that the president can support,” she said.
The senator said her primary concern is a potential seven-year gap in U.S. human spaceflight capability if the shuttle retires this year, as it is presently scheduled to do. Hutchison has proposed stretching out the three remaining shuttle flights over the next two years to shorten the gap.
The congressional delegation was joined by Houston Mayor Annise Parker and County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia.
Although not at the news conference, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, said later she is working with the White House to arrange a possible presidential visit to the Houston space center.
Former Houston Mayor Bill White, now the Democratic candidate for governor, agreed with the bipartisan group that “it was a mistake to discontinue the program until the new vehicle for manned space exploration was established.”
“It takes strong advocacy from the governor and a united congressional delegation for both NASA and its Texas-based facilities,” he said.
