NASAs 2015 Budget Would Keep Staffing Levels Flat, Provide Stability

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Posted on: 5:42 pm, March 4, 2014, by Matt Kroschel, updated on: 10:46pm, March 4, 2014

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) Leaders at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center say President Obamas proposed 2015 budget will keep funding about the same as the previous year.

During a media briefing Tuesday Marshall Director Patrick Scheuermann said he was happy with the budget and what it means for the North Alabama NASA operation.

This is a good budget for Marshall Space Flight Center and it provides stability for our workforce, programs and projects, Scheuermann said.

Patrick Scheuermann (Photo: NASA)

Under the budget Marshall Space Flight Center will receive a$2.15 billion the share of the presidents $17.5 billion NASA budget.

BY THE NUMBERS:

$1.4 billion the amount the center will spend developing the heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System next year. Its also consistent with last year, Scheuermann said.

$193 million the amount budgeted for space operations at Marshall. The big item here is the Payload Operations Center where Marshall manages all science experiments aboard the International Space Station. Thats a 24/7/365 operation.

$41 million the amount budgeted for Marshalls technology work including its centennial challenges and similar programs.

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NASAs 2015 Budget Would Keep Staffing Levels Flat, Provide Stability

Red Bull Double Pipe Snowboarding Competition Brings First-Ever Side-By-Side Halfpipes To Life March 19-23rd in Aspen

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On March 19-23rd, the worlds best snowboarders will descend on Aspen, Colorado to try their hand on a halfpipe (or two) that is unlike anything ever seen before. For the first time ever, two competition-spec halfpipes will be constructed side-by-side, complete with rails, wallrides, channels and other unique features sprinkled throughout the custom built snow feature. Located at the base of Buttermilk Mountain, the double pipe will allow riders to transfer back and forth between the two halfpipes in a single run, opening up an endless number of potential lines and combination of tricks that are not possible in traditional halfpipe contests. Riders will be judged not only on their technical abilities, but even more importantly, on their style, creativity and use of the course. The Red Bull Double Pipe contest will air on NBC, Saturday April 12that 2pm EST, as part of the Red Bull Signature Series, and spectators are encouraged to attend the live contest at Buttermilk as the event will be free and open to the public.

A Double Pipe? Are you kidding me? Two side-by-side halfpipes with transfers and options all over?? This is the kind of thing that our team at SPT has been dreaming about, and only a company like Red Bull can bring something like this to life, says Chris Gunnarson, President & Founder of Snow Park Technologies, the leading designers and builders of snow parks, pipes and event courses around the world. Its one thing to design this concept on a computer, but the build plan for something this immense already has our heads spinning. Its so rad to see a project like Red Bull Double Pipe break the mold with such a super progressive event on this scale.

Each halfpipe will be over 550 long, approximately 68 wide, and 22 tall with an approximate 4 wide spine located in between each pipe. Including the outside walls, the Red Bull Double Pipe will be 180 wide and over 550 long, making it the largest halfpipe feature built to date.

Progression is a beautiful thing, says John Rigney, V.P. of Sales and Events, Aspen Skiing Company. Its always incredibly exciting having the best athletes in the world competing here in Aspen/Snowmass, but to see this select group tackle an entirely new challenge at Buttermilk right here in our backyard is going to be amazing. We are proud to partner with Red Bull on another groundbreaking event.

The current superpipe located on Buttermilk Mountain will be closed to the public during the event construction efforts, but following the contest, the Red Bull Double Pipe will be open for the public to ride the same amazing course as the pros.

The Red Bull Double Pipe event format, schedule, and a complete list of riders will be announced shortly. In the meantime, please go to http://www.redbull.com/doublepipeand http://www.redbull.com/snowfor updates on other snowboarding athletes, events and projects in the world of Red Bull.

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Red Bull Double Pipe Snowboarding Competition Brings First-Ever Side-By-Side Halfpipes To Life March 19-23rd in Aspen

NASA and JAXA ISS Astronauts Congratulate ‘Gravity’ on Academy Awards #Oscars2014 – Video

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NASA and JAXA ISS Astronauts Congratulate #39;Gravity #39; on Academy Awards #Oscars2014
Aboard the International Space Station, NASA Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio and JAXA Astronaut Koichi Wakata congratulate the filmmakers and ac...

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Saylor Foundation and NASA’s SSE 101: Subunit 1.1 Common Definitions of Systems Engineering – Video

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Saylor Foundation and NASA #39;s SSE 101: Subunit 1.1 Common Definitions of Systems Engineering
Saylor.org and NASA have partnered to bring you this video as part of our Space Systems Engineering Online Course. Take the full SSE101: Survey of Systems En...

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NASA: Our relationship with Russia remains normal despite Ukraine crisis

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NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (left), along with Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov (center) and Alexander Misurkin (right), on the International Space Station, Sept. 10, 2013. NASA

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Tuesday that cooperation with Russia on the International Space Station has not been disrupted by rising diplomatic tensions over the crisis in Ukraine.

"Right now, everything is normal in our relationship with the Russians," Bolden said.

"I think people lose track of the fact that we have occupied the International Space Station now for 13 consecutive years uninterrupted, and that has been through multiple international crises," he said. "I don't think it's an insignificant fact that we are starting to see a number of people with the idea that the International Space Station be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not trivial."

Bolden urged Congress to fully fund development of commercial manned spacecraft to end U.S. reliance on Russia to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. He said the Obama administration's $17.5 billion budget request for NASA in fiscal 2015 will maintain American leadership on the high frontier.

Since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, and in the absence of earlier funding to develop a follow-on manned spacecraft, NASA has been dependent on the the Russians to launch crews to the space station aboard three-seat Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft.

The International Space Station

As part of a new space policy implemented by the Obama administration in 2010-11, NASA is overseeing a competition to develop a commercial American manned spacecraft to restore independent access to space.

The administration asked for $850 million for commercial manned spaceflight in its fiscal 2012 budget request, but Congress approved just $397 million, a cut that pushed the first NASA flight to the station back one year to 2017.

The administration requested $830 million in its fiscal 2013 budget. Early debate in the House called for limiting the scope of the contract to a single company but a compromise eventually was reached that would provide $525 million. NASA received $696 million for commercial crew operations in fiscal 2014.

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NASA: Our relationship with Russia remains normal despite Ukraine crisis

NASA's $17.5B 2015 budget would fund new science missions

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WASHINGTON NASA's 2015 budget would remain essentially flat at $17.5 billion under a White House spending proposal unveiled Tuesday that would hold the line on the agency's biggest space programs while laying the groundwork for major new astrophysics and planetary science missions.

However, a large airborne infrared telescope known as the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) would be grounded unless NASA's partner on the project, the German Aerospace Center, steps up its contribution, a senior agency official said ahead of the budget rollout.

The 2015 NASA budget request seeks about 1 percent less for NASA than what Congress approved for 2014 in an omnibus spending bill signed in January, but $600 million more than what the agency received in 2013, when automatic budget cuts known as sequestration were in full effect. [Video: How NASA Will Spend Your Money in 2015]

As part of the roughly $5 billion Science budget the administration proposed for 2015 about $180 million less than the 2014 appropriation NASA's Astrophysics division would get $607 million, $14 million of which would be for preliminary work on the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope: a dark-energy and exoplanet observatory that would utilize one of the two 2.4-meter telescopes donated to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office in 2012.

Planetary Science, meanwhile, would get nearly $1.3 billion, about $65 million less than Congress approved for 2014. The money would allow NASA to continue work on a new sample-caching Mars rover, based on the Curiosity design, that would launch in 2020. It would also provide $15 million for early work on a robotic mission to Jupiters moon Europa that would launch sometime next decade. In 2014, Congress approved about $80 million for Europa mission studies.

The White House's 2015 budget request was released about a month late and sets the stage for a new round of old disputes between the White House and Capitol Hill.

NASA is once again seeking more money than lawmakers have been willing to provide for an ongoing competition to build commercially designed spacecraft to take astronauts to the international space station by late 2017. NASA wants $848 million for 2015, nearly $150 million more than Congress provided in the 2014 omnibus bill, which is the high-water mark for the program.

At the same time, NASA is seeking about $2.8 billion for the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket and companion Orion deep-space crew capsule about $300 million less than Congress appropriated in the 2014 omnibus. SLS and Orion would debut in 2017 on an uncrewed test flight to lunar space, with a crewed mission to follow in 2021.

The 2015 budget provides no official estimate of the total cost for NASA's proposed asteroid redirect mission, which the agency announced in its 2014 budget request. In this mission, a new robotic spacecraft launching later this decade would redirect a small asteroid to lunar space, where astronauts could explore it by 2025 using SLS and Orion.

The White House proposed spending $133 million in 2015 on capabilities needed by, but not specific to, the asteroid mission: next-generation solar electric space propulsion, and improved asteroid detection. NASA said last year that the redirect mission, which has received a chilly reception on Capitol Hill, might cost roughly $2 billion.

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NASA's $17.5B 2015 budget would fund new science missions

NASA's 2015 budget plan maintains Mars landing plans

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NASA's $17.5 billion proposed fiscal 2015 budget would maintain the U.S. space agency's plan to send humans to Mars by the 2030s, to study near-Earth asteroids and to send astronauts to the International Space Station.

"Through NASA's work at all of our centers, our nation is recognized for scientific and technological leadership and knowledge-sharing that improves lives all around the world," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Tuesday.

The White House proposal for NASA is 1% lower than the final fiscal 2014 budget budget, and about $600 million more than it received in 2013.

Nonetheless, the proposed 2015 proposed budget would keep NASA on the path it's been on for a few years, preparing to send humans to live, explore and work on Mars by the 2030s.

Bolden noted that NASA hit several milestones on that path this year.

For instance, it oversaw two missions by private commercial companies - SpaceX and Orbital Sciences -- to resupply the space station. NASA also pushed to prepare the Orion space capsule for its first test flight later this year. The capsule is to one day carry humans into deep space.

"This budget ensures that the United States will remain the world's leader in space exploration and scientific discovery for years to come," said Bolden. "The budget supports the administration's commitment that NASA be a catalyst for the growth of a vibrant American commercial space industry, and keeps us on target to launch American astronauts from right here in the U.S.A. by 2017, ending our reliance on others to get into space and freeing us up to carry out even more ambitious missions beyond low-Earth orbit."

Regaining the ability to send astronauts to the space station would mark a major milestone for NASA.

After NASA retired its fleet of aging space shuttles in the summer of 2011, the agency has been forced to rely on Russian partners to keep the orbiter supplied with astronauts, food, spare parts and science experiments.

Bolden pointed out today that NASA hopes to have its commercial partners ferrying astronauts, as well as supplies, to the space station by 2017, lessening its reliance on foreign government agencies.

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NASA's 2015 budget plan maintains Mars landing plans

NASA Chief Charles Bolden's View on 2015 Budget Request

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NASA unveiled its 2015 budget request today (March 4), a request that seeks $17.5 billion for the agency that would fund the groundwork for some major new science missions, including a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, but make deep cuts in the agency's SOFIA flying telescope program.

NASA chief Charles Bolden has released a detailed statement on the NASA 2015 budget request. That statement, which was released on Bolden's NASA blog, appears below, courtesy of NASA:

"Today, President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2015 budget request for the nation, and there is a lot of good news in it for NASA. The presidents funding plan for America's space program reaffirms the path we are on, and will keep us moving forward pushing farther in the solar system and leading the world in a new era of exploration.

"Through NASA's work at all of our centers, our nation is recognized for scientific and technological leadership and knowledge-sharing that improves lives all around the world.

"Over the past six years, the Obama Administration has invested more than $100 billion in America's space program, including the $17.5 billion that is part of this years budget. The presidents budget, once again, affirms the bi-partisan strategic exploration plan agreed to with the Congress in 2010. It keeps us moving toward the missions and breakthroughs of tomorrow even as it enables the tangible successes of today. [NASA's Space Tech, Science & Exploration Goals for 2015: Gallery]

"This budget keeps us on the same, steady path we have been following a stepping stone approach to send humans to Mars in the 2030's. It's a path that has seen many recent successes, from the launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement mission last week -- the first of an unprecedented five Earth Science launches this year -- to returning space station resupply missions to U.S. soil with private American companies to the power-up of Orion and the countdown toward its first flight test later this year to the final mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope being delivered.

"This budget ensures that the United States will remain the world's leader in space exploration and scientific discovery for years to come. The budget supports the administrations commitment that NASA be a catalyst for the growth of a vibrant American commercial space industry, and keeps us on target to launch American astronauts from right here in the USA by 2017, ending our reliance on others to get into space and freeing us up to carry out even more ambitious missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

"We are committed to the International Space Station, and the latest extension guarantees well have this unique orbiting outpost for at least another decade. This means an expanded market for private space companies, more ground-breaking research and science discovery in microgravity and additional opportunities to live, work and learn in space over longer and longer periods of time.

"This budget keeps NASA's deep space exploration program on track by funding the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion crew vehicle to take American astronauts farther into the solar system than we have ever gone before. Our stepping stone approach to sending humans to Mars involves continued research on the space station, testing our new capabilities beyond the moon, exploring an asteroid and ultimately sending a crewed mission to the Red Planet.

"In order to carry out these pioneering missions, we have to develop technologies for our asteroid redirect mission that will lead to the subsequent first crewed mission to Mars.

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NASA Chief Charles Bolden's View on 2015 Budget Request

NASA's 2015 Budget Request for Space Exploration: Complete Coverage

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NASA unveiled its 2015 budget request on Tuesday (March 4), a $17.5 billion spending plan that would maintain the space agency's major ongoing missions. See Space.com complete coverage of NASA's 2015 budget request here:

Big Story: NASA's $17.5 Billion Budget Request for 2015 Would Fund New Science Missions, Ground Flying Telescope NASA's 2015 budget would remain essentially flat at $17.5 billion under a White House spending proposal unveiled today (March 4). It maintains the agency's biggest space programs, lays groundwork for major new astrophysics and planetary science. From our news partner SpaceNews.

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How NASA Will Spend Your Money | Video NASA Space Tech, Science & Exploration Goals in 2015 in Pictures (Gallery)

NASA budget Coverage

Russia-Ukraine Tension Won't Affect US Astronauts on Space Station, NASA Chief Says An upcoming launch and landing of astronauts to and from the International Space Station will not be affected by the current tensions between the U.S. and Russia.

NASA's $17.5 Billion Budget Request for 2015 Would Fund New Science Missions, Ground Flying Telescope NASA's 2015 budget would remain essentially flat at $17.5 billion under a White House spending proposal unveiled today (March 4). It maintains the agency's biggest space programs, lays groundwork for major new astrophysics and planetary science. From our news partnerSpaceNews.

Expert Voices: Reactions to NASA's 2015 Budget Request for Space Exploration NASA unveiled its 2015 budget request on Tuesday (March 4), a $17.5 billion spending plan that would maintain the space agency's major ongoing missions, while supporting ambitious new science missions. See reactions to the new NASA budget.

Highlights of NASA's 2015 Budget Request Unveiled The proposed 2015 federal budget released by the White House today (March 4) allocates $17.5 billion to NASA, a $200 million drop from the space agency's 2014 budget request.

NASA Chief Charles Bolden's View on 2015 Budget Request NASA unveiled its 2015 budget request today (March 4), a request that seeks $17.5 billion for the agency. See NASA chief Charles Bolden's view of the agency's 2015 budget plan.

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NASA's 2015 Budget Request for Space Exploration: Complete Coverage

NASA slashes funding for observatory

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NASA plans to mothball its infrared airborne observatory unless it can get financial help from international partners.

US President Barack Obama's proposed budget for fiscal 2015 slashes funding for the US-German project from $US84 million ($A94.17 million) to $12 million.

'Budgets are about making choices,' NASA administrator Charles Bolden said.

NASA is the main backer of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), which scans the skies for celestial objects that give off infrared radiation, which is invisible to the human eye.

The high-flying observatory, which cost about $US1.25 billion to develop, has a history of delays and cost overruns. It made its first observations in 2010 and reached full operational capability in February.

The two NASA centres in charge of the project, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Southern California and Ames Research Center in Northern California, learnt about the proposed cut last week.

'It was a surprise to all of us,' said David McBride, head of NASA Armstrong.

SOFIA consists of an 18,000-kilogram telescope that's mounted in the rear of a modified jumbo jet. During flight, a hatch opens to allow the telescope to see its targets.

Flying between 39,000 feet and 45,000 feet, SOFIA has an advantage over ground-based telescopes because it doesn't have to peer through water vapour in the atmosphere.

NASA previously said SOFIA was expected to last at least 20 years.

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NASA slashes funding for observatory

Solid State Institute & Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion, Israel – Video

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Solid State Institute Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion, Israel
The Solid State Institute Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), at Technion in Israel, are at the forefront scientific activity. Future technolog...

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