Space Organizations Part 1: NASA - Nasa's Budget

NASA is a federal government agency. For accounting purposes the federal government operates on a fiscal year (FY) that begins in October and runs through the end of September. Thus, fiscal year 2004 covers the time period of October 1, 2003, through September 30, 2004. Each year by the first Monday in February the President of the United States must present a proposed budget to the U.S. House of Representatives. This is the amount of money FIGURE 2.10
NASA's fiscal year 2004 budget request, by enterprise that the president estimates will be required to operate the federal government during the next fiscal year.

It can take many months for the House to debate, negotiate, and approve a final budget. Then, the budget must also be approved by the U.S. Senate. This entire process can take longer than a year. This means that NASA can be well into a fiscal year before knowing the amount of its budget for that year. For example, NASA's FY 2004 budget was not yet approved by the Senate as of February 2004. In 2003 the House of Representatives approved nearly $15.5 billion for NASA for FY 2004. This occurred before the president announced his plans for NASA.

Figure 2.10 shows the FY 2004 budget request broken down by each NASA enterprise. Space flight is the single most expensive enterprise, followed by space science, and aeronautics. Together these three enterprises comprise 82 percent of NASA's total budget. The budget request is broken down in more detail in Figure 2.11, which shows that operation of the space shuttle program is, by far, the single most expensive project at NASA. It requires nearly $4 billion a year. This is approximately 25 percent of the entire FY 2004 budget request.

In February 2004 NASA responded to the president's orders by developing a tentative long-range mission plan as shown in Figure 2.12. The plan incorporates the president's proposed yearly budgets for the agency through FY 2009. Then, it continues to project program expenses through FY 2020 assuming that NASA receives a modest budget increase each year.

The long-term plan assumes that shuttle program costs will decrease slowly until 2010 and disappear by FIGURE 2.11
NASA fiscal year 2004 budget request 2012. The money saved by eliminating the shuttle program will give a funding boost to the new lunar and Martian exploration program. In 2017 another boost for exploration funds is projected when U.S. participation ends in the ISS program.

Expenses on aeronautics and other science activities are predicted to remain virtually unchanged over the next few decades. Funding for human/robotic technology and development of a crew exploration vehicle is expected to grow modestly between 2004 and 2009.

NASA's ability to follow through with this long-range plan is dependent on Congressional approval of projected budgets and successful implementation of the new technologies that will be required for success.

FIGURE 2.12
NASA budget strategy based on long-term affordability