A NASA advisory panel said earlier this year that inadequate funding jeopardized the safety of commercial space cargo shipments, such as the unmanned Orbital Sciences Corp. (ORB) mission that exploded this week over Virginia.

In its annual report released in January, the agencys Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel warned about funding shortfalls in programs that use commercial companies to transport crew and cargo to low-orbit space.

Insufficient funding results in either extended schedule or lower performance, according to the 2013 annual report to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The panel said the result could be higher failure risk through improper or insufficient testing.

Space Taxis

A commercial space industry has emerged in the U.S. after budget cuts prompted NASA to retire the space shuttle in 2011. The agency now relies on Orbital and Elon Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to ferry supplies to the International Space Station.

Last month, the agency for the first time handed responsibility for manned spaceflight to private contractors, awarding Boeing and SpaceX as much as $6.8 billion in contracts to ferry astronauts to the space station.

The explosion on Oct. 28 of a $200 million Antares rocket and spacecraft occurred seconds after launch at the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginias eastern shore. No one was injured. NASA and Orbital said they remain committed to the program, though Orbital Chief Executive Officer David Thompson said it would delay its next launch, scheduled for April. He said the company was still investigating the cause.

The NASA panels report said the agency should clarify what, if any, limits to the cargo program are appropriate for the relatively unproven vehicles and the limited insight/oversight posture currently in place.

NASA requested $850 million for fiscal year 2012 for contract management and oversight of the commercial operations, according to the advisory panels report. Congress appropriated $397 million, raising the risk of failure, according to the report.

Appropriations have increased since, though fell short of NASAs request again in 2013. The agency sought $830 million and received $525 million. That figure is only for the manned portion of the program because the cargo missions were shifted to the International Space Station budget in 2013, according to the Congressional Research Service. Figures for the cargo portion of the space station budget were not immediately available.

Read the rest here:

NASA Panel Warned About Risks of Budget on Cargo Missions