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NASA Glenn Research Center would receive $598 million in 2017, under President Barack Obama's proposed budget.
(File photo)
SANDUSKY, Ohio -- The path to Mars cuts through Cleveland.
The NASA Glenn Research Center - in an unassuming aircraft hangar near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport - will help develop critical technologies to make the 48.6-million-mile, nine-month trip to Mars.
In his "State of NASA" address Tuesday beamed out to the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. said the space agency's goal was to put feet on the red planet by the 2030s. "Mars matters," Bolden said.
Also on Tuesday, President Barack Obama requested $19 billion for NASA in his proposed 2017 budget to help fuel that long shot.
Of the $19 billion, $598 million is earmarked for Glenn, which director Jim Free called an eclectic group of scientists and engineers who "do really cool, crazy stuff." That's a healthy chunk of change comparable to previous allocations, according to Larry Sivic, Glenn's chief financial officer.
NASA Glenn will receive another $3.7 bill over 10 years, starting next year.
The almost $600 million question now is: Will Glenn get the money?
"Congress has the final say," Free said.
And it can get ugly.
Last year a Senate appropriations subcommittee wanted to hijack $150 million from the Cleveland NASA pot to pay for a Maryland-based robotic mission to refuel satellites.
That money-grab was thwarted by the Ohio delegation - which Free said he will be marshaling even as you read this.
He stressed that the competition was between Congressional districts, and not between the 10 NASA centers around the country.
"We don't compete with other centers," Free said. "We just view it [Congress members vying for a bigger cut] as part of the budget process - even if it impacts us negatively."