Bolden: Breakdown with Russia may stall deep-space plan, Florida News
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Charles more
WASHINGTON – NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. told a congressional panel Thursday that if Russia stops taking American astronauts to the International Space Station, he will recommend suspending work on deep-space programs that rely on the orbiting lab for important groundwork.
Responding to House members who raised the concern, Bolden said it's very doubtful Russia would suddenly bar astronauts from riding on its Soyuz rockets, even amid rising tensions between the two countries over Ukraine.
Such a move would likely shut down the station and force a halt to the Space Launch System deep-space rocket and Orion crew vehicle being developed to take astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, Bolden said. The space station will conduct medical tests and advance technology crucial to the success of the Mars mission.
"We're fooling everybody that we can go to deep space if the International Space Station is not there," Bolden told lawmakers on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. "If I can't get to low-Earth orbit, there is no exploration program."
The NASA administrator appeared before lawmakers to defend the Obama administration's $17.46 billion budget request for fiscal 2015, which begins Oct. 1.
The budget includes funding to continue NASA's top priorities: the deep-space rocket and Orion multi-purpose vehicle it will carry to Mars, the James Webb Space Telescope due for launch in 2018, and about $133 million to fund a trip to an asteroid by 2025 as part of a stepping-stone approach to the Red Planet.
NASA also is seeking $848 million for the Commercial Crew program — in which private aerospace companies are helping the agency develop a successor to the space shuttle — to meet a 2017 goal to resume sending astronauts to the space station from U.S. soil. That's $148 million more than the program received for fiscal 2014.
The companies are competing to transport crew to the space station in much the same way private firms competed to ferry cargo to the space station.
Congress has never given NASA its full funding request for the program since the Obama administration first asked for money several years ago. Lawmakers fear Commercial Crew takes money away from the deep-space program they often cite as their top priority.
That's forced the agency to push back the planned launch date — from 2015 to late 2017 — for its first crewed mission to the space station.
U.S. astronauts have had to rely on Russia for rides to the space station since the shuttle program ended with Atlantis' landing in July 2011. The Russians charge American taxpayers more than $70 million for each round trip under a contract between NASA and Roscosmos.
Not funding the full $848 million this time would almost certainly push that first flight into 2018 or later, forcing NASA to buy more seats from Russia, Bolden said.
"Budgets are about choices," he told lawmakers. "The choice here is between fully funding the request to bring space launches back to American soil or continue to send millions to the Russians. It's that simple."
Bolden doesn't believe Russia will deny America access to the shuttle, based on his conversations with his Russian counterparts, who he said want to continue the partnership. A Soyuz rocket carrying two Russians and astronaut Steve Swanson was scheduled to dock at the station Thursday night.
In addition, NASA handles communication and navigation for the orbiting lab, so not having Americans on board would essentially render it unusable for everyone, Bolden said.
Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, told Bolden that President Barack Obama could have avoided the situation by extending the life of the shuttle. or at least keeping one for emergency transport.
The decision to retire the shuttles, which debuted in 1981, was made during the George W. Bush administration following the 2003 accident involving the Columbia shuttle.
Rep. Steve Palazzo, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the panel's Space Subcommittee, agreed it's undesirable to pay Russia more. But he also wants to use limited resources on a deep-space mission involving a lunar landing that he views as paramount to America's long-term national security.
"We have some serious budget constraints, not just dealing with NASA's budget but with all of our discretionary spending," he told Bolden "And we have to make sure that we have a presence in space. If not, those friends that aren't so friendly to us will have a presence."
Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com; Twitter: @ledgeking
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