Letters To the Committee :: June 11, 2007

Administration Responds to Chairmen's Concern for NASA Funding

June 11, 2007

The Honorable Bart Gordon
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Gordon:

We are writing in response to your letter to the President concerning our country’s civil space activities. There is certainly no question that a balanced, robust space program is in the nation’s interest and we appreciate your enthusiasm and support for this effort. The White House has devoted much attention in recent years to the future of America’s space program, and in that context the President in 2004 articulate a bold vision of human and robotic space exploration for the nation to pursue in the years ahead.

Realizing this vision does require resources, and it is our view that the President’s budget requests since the 2004 announcement would have provided sufficient resources to implement this program and to support other important NASA activities, such as science and aeronautics. While some difficult choices have been required in recent years, we believe NASA remains generally well-positioned to carry out a balanced civil space effort and to maintain the nation’s leadership in this sector. Challenges remain, however, that need to be addressed in the future. These include the difficult task of safely flying the Shuttle until its 2010 retirement while developing the new vehicles needed to support the exploration program, and accomplishing this in an environment where recent appropriations for NASA fell significantly below the requested amounts. The implications and next steps regarding these issues are still being explored with NASA.

To read the complete letter from Directors Marburger and Portman, follow this link»