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WASHINGTON — NASA's backers in Congress have apparently neutralized President Bush's threat to veto a 15 percent budget increase for the space agency by tacking the measure onto a $630 billion spending measure the president must sign to keep the government functioning in the new fiscal year that begins Wednesday.
The White House received the measure late Monday, setting the stage for Bush to sign the package into law at any time, a presidential aide said.
The measure also includes $22.8 billion in relief for states hit with natural disasters this year, including the Texas victims of Hurricane Ike.
The NASA legislation within the package authorizes spending $20.2 billion next year — $2.6 billion more than the Bush administration requested. The White House had warned that the bill was "inconsistent with the administration's fiscal policies."
Congress added the money to underwrite an extra shuttle flight, to potentially extend shuttle operations past the fleet's scheduled retirement in 2010 and to underwrite a delay in any decision to retire the shuttle fleet until the next president and the next Congress take office in January.
Backers said the legislation would bolster NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 with an eye on a manned mission to Mars in the subsequent decade.
Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, said the popular legislation "sends a strong message" to the next president that the space agency is worthy of support.
The legislation passed the House by a vote of 409 to 15 last June.
The Senate adopted the bill last Thursday.
Among the provisions was money for an added shuttle flight to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station — a priority pressed by Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, and Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston.
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA contractors employ 16,500 Houston-area residents. The space agency pumps an estimated $2 billion annually into the city's economy.
''The country's technological edge in the world is largely due to the work done at NASA," Lampson said. ''To abandon NASA or even allow it to be under-funded is to abandon our leadership role in technology."
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, an expected candidate for Texas governor in 2010, praised the package. "With other countries moving forward with manned spaceflight, the stakes are too high for America to lose its edge as the world leader in space exploration," she said.
The legislation reflects Congress' latest effort to close a projected five-year gap in manned space operations between the scheduled retirement of the shuttle fleet in 2010 and projected deployment of the next generation of manned spaceships in 2016.
NASA plans to pay Russia to ferry U.S. astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station during the gap. Congress adopted a waiver last week to permit NASA to contract with Russia for the flights after 2011.
JIUQUAN, China — China successfully launched a three-man crew into space today to carry out the country's first spacewalk, beginning the nation's most challenging space mission since it first sent a person into space in 2003.
The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, China's third manned mission, blasted off atop a Long March 2F rocket shortly after 8 a.m. CDT under clear night skies in northwestern China.
The spacewalk by one of the astronauts is expected to take place either on Friday or Saturday.
Underscoring the mission's heavy political overtones, Chinese President and Communist Party head Hu Jintao was shown live on state television hailing the astronauts at the launch site near the northwestern town of Jiuquan.
"You will definitely accomplish this glorious and sacred mission. The motherland and the people are looking forward to your triumphant return," Hu told the three, who were dressed in their flight suits and behind glass to avoid germs.
The mission is expected to last three to four days. The spacewalk will last about 40 minutes.
The spacewalk is expected to help China master the technology for docking two orbiters to create China's first orbiting space station in the next few years.
The spacewalk could happen either Friday or Saturday depending on how well the astronauts adapt to weightlessness and other physical demands of their environment, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
The astronauts would return to Earth soon after the spacewalk, the office said.
The two astronauts who don spacesuits for the Shengzhou 7 spacewalk will be supported by Russian experts throughout the mission. Only one will actually leave the orbiter module to retrieve scientific experiments placed outside.
One of the astronauts will wear China's homemade Feitian suit, while the other will wear a Russian-made suit.
Fighter pilot Zhai Zhigang, an unsuccessful candidate for the previous two manned missions, has been touted by the official Xinhua News Agency as the leading astronaut to carry out the spacewalk.
Zhai and fellow astronauts and fighter pilots Jing Haipeng and Liu Boming — all age 42 — were introduced to journalists at a news conference late Wednesday.
A decade of training together ensured effective, smooth cooperation between the three, Liu said.
"The Shenzhou 7 mission marks a historic breakthrough in China's manned space program," Zhai said. "It is a great honor for all three of us to fly the mission, and we are fully prepared for the challenge."
Before the launch, Chinese Officials again expressed a desire for closer cooperation with other nations in space. But some nations, especially the United States, remain dubious of the Chinese program's military backing and are keeping Beijing at arms-length on projects such as the international space station.
"The U.S. concern is that cooperation with China could lead to a sharing of technology and expertise that could improve Chinese space and missile capabilities, which also could have military utility," the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S.-based group that researches the Chinese space program, said in a report issued Tuesday.
China, meanwhile, sees such restrictions as excessive and believes the U.S. aim is to "slow the pace of China's overall economic and technical progress," the group said.
China has a limited partnership with the European Space Agency on the Galileo navigation satellite network to compete with the U.S. Global Positioning System. Chinese space program officials point to such programs as signs of growing international involvement.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said Thursday that he's examining what it would take to keep the space shuttle flying for five years past its 2010 retirement date.
Griffin said the Russian invasion of Georgia will likely cut off access to Soyuz rockets, leaving NASA with no way to get to the international space station except for the aging orbiter.
Griffin also said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel that NASA is looking at one-in-eight odds of losing a shuttle and crew if it adds 10 flights after 2010.
That risk is recalculated from one-in-12 odds announced in April.
"This is why the shuttle needs to be retired," he said.
Still, the NASA chief said he has ordered his agency to look into the possibility of twice-a-year shuttle flights after 2010 in case the next administration decides that flying the shuttle on a limited basis is better than being cut off from the $100 billion space station.
At issue is the Iran, North Korea, Syria Non-Proliferation Act that requires NASA to get an exemption from Congress to buy Russian Soyuz spacecraft because of Russia's sales of high-tech equipment to Iran.
If the shuttle is retired, NASA would need the Soyuz to take astronauts to the station for at least five years until its successor is ready in 2015.
But NASA's contract to buy Soyuz flights runs out in 2011, and the Russian invasion of Georgia means Congress is unlikely to grant NASA the waiver it needs to buy more.
Here are excerpts of the interview:
Q: You recently asked for a study looking at how to extend the shuttle program. Why?
A: First, let me correct your assumption. I am not looking to extend flying the shuttle. I am looking at what it would take if we were asked to keep flying to support the space station. ... About five minutes after I heard the news of the Russian invasion of Georgia, I became concerned that our policy of depending upon them for crew transport might be in jeopardy.
Q: You told the Senate in April that you thought two more missions a year from 2011 to 2015 would put the risk of losing another crew at one-in-12, and you said it was not a risk that you wanted to accept. Has that changed?
A: A better number for executing 10 more missions between 2011 and 2015 would be a one-in-eight probability of losing a crew. And yes, I do believe the risk of losing a crew should be factored into the decision on whether to extend shuttle flight. But let me make it clear: I am trying to do prudent planning. I am not operating under the illusion that my preferences are laws of nature. I prefer to stick to our current plan: to get a waiver and continue to purchase crew transport from Russia until we can deploy (the shuttle's successor.) But merely because I think it ought to be done, doesn't mean it will be done.
Q: One-in-eight? Those are terrible odds.
A: Let me be very specific. Our current loss-of-crew probability on the shuttle is ... about one in 80. ... That's the loss-of-crew probability for a single mission. If you ask what are the odds of doing 10 missions in a row without losing a crew, the odds are seven-out-of-eight. So turning it around, if you fly 10 missions the odds of losing a crew are one-in-eight.
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's position on space exploration continued to evolve Sunday as the Illinois Democrat endorsed a congressional plan to add $2 billion to NASA's budget and agreed to back at least one more space shuttle mission.
In a policy paper released Sunday by his campaign, the presumptive Democratic nominee said his goal was to "minimize the gap" between the end of the shuttle program and the beginning of future manned missions. He also said he was hoping "to ensure retention of" thousands of NASA workers in Texas and Florida whose jobs are threatened by a possible five-year gap before the beginning of the Constellation initiative to send astronauts to the moon and Mars.
The additional NASA funding and shuttle mission are being pushed strongly by Democrats and Republicans from the two states. Obama's Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, has already endorsed closing the five-year gap. President Bush opposes the $2 billion in funding, saying it would be fiscally irresponsible.
Obama has not always been a strong supporter of additional money for NASA. Indeed, in December 2007, his campaign Web site declared that he would finance an early childhood education initiative by reducing funding for the Constellation program. And Obama told the Houston Chronicle's editorial board in February that he was not convinced that human exploration was worth the cost.
After Democrats from Florida and Texas complained, Obama pivoted and found other ways to fund his education initiative.
"To his credit, he changed that position," Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said Sunday.
Republicans on Sunday ridiculed Obama's latest statement and said he is pandering to voters to remain competitive in the swing state of Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Center.
"Obama's shifting stance on space exploration is indicative of his inexperience on issues important to voters," said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant. "Let's be honest: Obama is only embracing NASA now because of his political problems in Florida."
McCain told the Houston Chronicle earlier this year that he viewed manned spaceflight as "something that is elemental and a vital part of our space program." He said he wants to close the gap in manned spaceflight, but added, "I think we've got to sort out our priorities better. In other words, we can't do everything."
Obama echoed those thoughts in a statement released by his campaign Sunday. McCain's Democratic opponent declared that he hoped "to maintain a robust program of human space exploration and ... continue our nation's pre-eminence in space."
While Obama endorsed a "balanced program of space exploration and scientific discovery," his policy statement did not include any specific mention of the Constellation program. It did, however, discuss in great detail his support for expanding NASA's robotic and aeronautic programs.
He also proposed to restore a national aeronautics and space council, a group including NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and other air and space stakeholders.
The most important change in Obama's past positions is that he now favors at least one additional space shuttle mission before the shuttles are retired. Florida Sen. Nelson said Obama's staff assured him the presidential candidate favors the congressional plan to add $2 billion to NASA's budget.
Obama's newly released details impressed former astronaut and Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio. But Glenn, a former space policy adviser to Obama primary rival Hillary Clinton, said he wants more from his candidate. "I hope it goes even further," Glenn said. "At least ... one (more) additional shuttle flight."
Republicans remained skeptical. "Considering Obama's shifting positions, he cannot be trusted to fully support NASA's mission to Mars," said the RNC's Conant. "The only thing Barack Obama knows about sending a man to the moon is that it's a good applause line."
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