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Post shuttle budget nuclear { April 9 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-asecssnasa09x040903apr09,0,1336142.story?coll=orl-news-headlineshttp://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-asecssnasa09x040903apr09,0,1336142.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
COLUMBIA LOST
O'Keefe assures lawmakers of NASA's resolve
By Gwyneth K. Shaw
Sentinel Staff Writer
April 9, 2003
WASHINGTON -- NASA is eager to look to the future even as it grapples with delays caused by the Columbia accident and the grounding of the remaining three space shuttles, agency head Sean O'Keefe told a congressional budget committee Tuesday.
The space program must continue, he said, with a careful balance of manned and unmanned missions to minimize risk while using astronauts to perform essential tasks. "Something went dangerously wrong," O'Keefe said of the Feb. 1 breakup of Columbia, which killed seven astronauts. "We're going to find it, fix it and return to flying safely.
"But to ignore the objective for exploration and discovery would be a step backward."
Amid questions about the future of the shuttle program, the international space station and efforts to build new spacecraft to supplement the shuttle, the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls the agency's purse strings took a first look at NASA's $15.47 billion request for 2004.
U.S. Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., who heads the subcommittee, said the importance of spaceflight should not be diminished by the Columbia tragedy.
"I suspect that if we back away from the inherent desire in humans to move forward and find new horizons, the world would be a very different place," Walsh said.
Rep. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, the subcommittee's ranking Democratic member, said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's predicament -- with no way to get into space until the shuttles can fly again -- highlights the need for the agency to aim higher in the future. He said NASA's budget request "continues a too-long trend for this agency" seeking too little money to do everything it wants.
O'Keefe said the budget, and an accompanying blueprint for the next several years, is a "steppingstone" approach to set up long-term goals. His biggest proposal, dubbed Project Prometheus, calls for spending $3 billion during the next five years to develop ways to convert nuclear fission into electrical power needed to send spacecraft deeper into space. He said that unless the board investigating the Columbia tragedy presents the agency with a "showstopper," NASA hopes to return to flight as quickly as the end of this year.
Several subcommittee members urged that NASA develop an alternative vehicle more quickly. Its next project, the orbital space plane, is not slated to be ready until 2012.
Rep. Dave Weldon, a NASA advocate whose district until recently included Kennedy Space Center, told O'Keefe he can't believe that the agency can't move more quickly. He suggested picking a capsule design to slash development time.
"It would seem to me, from my perspective, that the capsule concept is a very attractive way for us to get from here to there relatively quickly," said Weldon, R-Palm Bay.
Gwyneth K. Shaw can be reached t gshaw@orlandosentinel.com
or 202-824-8229.
Copyright © 2003, Orlando Sentinel
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