NASA budget proposal for moon 2024 plan still not ready - Houston Chronicle

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Monday that the agency's new budget request, which would include a plan to return to the moon by 2024, still is not ready.

And yet, he is scheduled to testify in front of a U.S. Senate budget subcommittee Wednesday.

Bridenstine was asked about the much-anticipated budget Monday after speaking at the International Academy of Astronautics Planetary Defense Conference in Maryland.

The nation has been waiting for the space agency to submit a new budget request to Congress since the middle of March, when Vice President Mike Pence directed NASA to put boot prints on the moon four years earlier than initially planned -- by 2024 instead of 2028 -- using "any means necessary."

PENCE: Put Americans on the moon in the next 5 years

The announcement did not included any funding or planning. Pence's statement surprised many, especially because President Donald Trump's administration had just released a budget proposal that would cut half-a-billion dollars from NASA's budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Since Pence's announcement, Bridenstine has shared some elements of a plan with the Houston Chronicle. It would include help from international partners, commercial companies and the Orion spacecraft-Space Launch System Rocket duo.

But the agency, apparently, still is working out how much money it would need to make this happen.

Bridenstine previously told the Chronicle the budget would be ready by early May at the latest. The hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee for commerce, justice, science and related agencies is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

If the hearing (available to watch here) takes place as scheduled, Congress members will no doubt be unhappy with the agency for not having a plan in place. In early April, about two weeks after Pence's moon announcement, Bridenstine testified in front of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

CONGRESS TO NASA: Where is the plan?

And its members were irritated that NASA didn't yet have a plan in place.

"Rhetoric isn't the same as a credible plan," said U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Democrat from Texas and chairwoman of the committee. "Given the absence of an urgent crisis, it would be the height of irresponsibility for the vice president of the United States to direct NASA to land astronauts on the Moon within the next five years without knowing what it will cost, how achievable the schedule is, and how it will impact NASA's other programs."

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.

Let's block ads! (Why?)