spacetoday.net: NASA administrator defends budget request

Posted: Fri, Mar 9, 2012, 6:57 AM ET (1157 GMT)
US Capitol

The head of NASA visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday, making separate appearances in House and Senate hearings to support the agency's 2013 budget request. Charles Bolden appeared before hearings of the Senate Commerce Committee and House Science Committee, fielding questions about the $17.7-billion budget proposed for the space agency in the next fiscal year. Much of the debate at the hearings was about the request for nearly $830 million for NASA's commercial crew program, a sharp increase from the $406 million the program received in 2012 but similar to the original budget request that year. Bolden said the funding was needed to keep the effort on track to start providing service no later than 2017. Some members expressed concern that commercial crew's money was coming at the expense of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) spacecraft. Congress has yet to take formal action on the budget, and a final decision on 2012 spending isn't expected until after the November elections.