spacetoday.net: Bush proposes $15.5 billion budget for NASA in 2004

Posted: Tue, Feb 4, 2003, 6:51 AM ET (1151 GMT)
NASA

President Bush released his proposed fiscal year 2004 budget on Monday, including nearly $15.5 billion for NASA in a budget as yet untouched by the Columbia tragedy. The budget calls for $15.47 billion for NASA in 2004, a 3.1% increase over the $15.0 billion Bush proposed in 2003. Included in the budget are several new initiatives, including Project Prometheus, the widely-publicized program to develop nuclear propulsion systems for future missions. The first mission that would use such a system is the Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter, also announced in the budget; it would use nuclear propulsion to orbit the Jovian moons of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The budget also includes funding for a new optical communications initiative that would use lasers to transmit data over interplanetary wavelengths at extremely high bandwidth. The budget would provide $130 million in 2004 for the New Horizons Pluto flyby mission; NASA had attempted to kill the mission the last two years only to have Congress restore funding. The budget includes $397 million shuttle safety upgrades, a figure that will almost certainly come under intense Congressional scrutiny in the months to come. NASA released the budget without the usual fanfare in the wake of the Columbia accident, canceling a planned budget briefing by administrator Sean O'Keefe.