KEY POINTS FROM CHARLES BOLDEN’S STATEMENTS
- This budget cancels the Constellation Program, including the Ares I and V rockets and the Orion crew exploration vehicle.
- With this budget we are demonstrating our commitment to extend the life of the International Space Station, likely to 2020 or beyond.
- Today we are using stimulus funds to help drive the beginnings of a commercial crew industry and the as many as 5,000 new jobs that industry suggests it can create.
- I am pleased to announce that NASA will award approximately $50M to further the commercial sector’s capability to support transport of crew to and from low Earth orbit. Through an open competition, NASA has awarded Space Act Agreements to:
- Blue Origin of Kent, Washington;
- The Boeing Company of Houston, Texas;
- Paragon Space Development Corporation of Tucson, Arizona;
- Sierra Nevada Corporation of Louisville, Colorado; and
- United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado,
for the development of crew concepts, technology demonstrations, and investigations for future commercial support of human spaceflight. We will be discussing these awards in more detail, and introducing you to the space pioneers behind them tomorrow at our event at the National Press Club.
- The first program, funded at $7.8 billion over five years, will invent and demonstrate large-scale, new and novel approaches to spaceflight such as in-orbit fuel depots and rendezvous and docking technologies, and closed-loop life support systems so that our future robotic and human exploration missions are both highly capable and more affordable.
- At $3.1 billion over five years, an aggressive, new heavy lift research and development program will focus on development of new engines, propellants, materials and combustion processes, ultimately leading to innovative ways of accessing space to go beyond low Earth orbit. This will increase our capabilities and significantly lower operations costs – with the clear goal of taking us farther and faster into space.
- And the budget also provides $4.9 billion over 5 years for a broad space technology program, including investments in very early stage and game-changing approaches, cross-cutting technologies such as communications, sensors and robotics, and a flight demonstration program for these game changing technologies. These programs will use prizes and other innovative research funding mechanisms to support the most worthwhile ideas.
- In addition to the trailblazing technology programs, the President’s budget provides $3 billion over five years for robotic exploration precursor missions that will pave the way for later human exploration of the moon, Mars and nearby asteroids. Like the highly successful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSS missions that captured our attention last fall, future exploration precursor missions will expand on these successes, visiting more places in the inner solar system, with greater capabilities. These missions will inform us of the most interesting places to explore with humans, and validate our approaches to get them there safely and sustainably.