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AL.com | Aderholt to president: NASA, defense budgets range from 'disappointing' to 'indefensible'

April 11, 2013

 Aderholt to president: NASA, defense budgets range from 'disappointing' to 'indefensible'
By Lee Roop | AL.com | April 11, 2013

 

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) wasted no time responding to President Obama's proposed spending plans for NASA and the Pentagon. The member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee said Wednesday that budgets range from "disappointing" to "indefensible." Aderholt said, "The bright spots in the space and defense programs are few and very far in-between, particularly as it relates to the SLS and ground missile defense."

Aderholt said the budget gives NASA $1.45 billion for the Space Launch System (SLS) being developed in Huntsville. That's $110 million less than fiscal year 2012, he said, an "extremely disappointing" recommendation that is at odds with earlier NASA authorization legislation the president signed. And the $821 million the White House wants to give private companies to build astronaut-carrying spacecraft "is not defensible" given the SLS funding, Aderholt said.

As for the plan to capture an asteroid, Aderholt said the plan does not commit to using SLS to get there and has no clear time frame or cost estimate. Rather than an asteroid, Aderholt repeated his call for a return mission to the Moon. "Rather than spending limited resources bringing potentially dangerous objects closer to the Earth, we could be spending those dollars on missions to the Moon for which there is international support and already some ... cooperation between both government and private investment," Aderholt said. 

Other immediate reaction to the budget by Alabama lawmakers was more muted. A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa), said Shelby "believes that NASA should continue to explore the universe and challenge scientific and technical boundaries. However, NASA should maintain focus on its core mission and continue development of the Space Launch System so that it will be ready for any future NASA mission."

 

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