Rep. Gordon: NASA given 'more mission than money' for ambitious goals

The Obama administration's refusal to seek additional funds for NASA make the president's ambitious plans for the agency impossible to execute, according to a letter from the chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology.

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) released his response Friday after a number of prominent former NASA officials, researchers and scientists including 14 Nobel laureates wrote to House leadership last week urging them to increase funding for research, robotics and human space flight. The scientists also praised the administration for its focus on developing the commercial space industry.

"The hard reality is that the Administration has sent an unexecutable budget request to Congress, and we now have to make tough choices so that the nation can have a sustainable and balanced NASA program," Gordon wrote.

Gordon said the administration has failed to address the committee's concerns about the cost and structure of Obama's plans for the human space-flight program, despite requesting clarifications for months. He said the administration's silence on the issue is evidence of the unrealistic nature of the president's plans.

"Reluctantly, the Committee came to the conclusion that the president's new human space flight program, much like the current Constellation program, was unexecutable under the current budget projections and other NASA priorities we all agree must be addressed," Gordon said. "This conclusion was not reached in haste and was based upon several months of hearings from expert witnesses."

Gordon said the administration's plan was further complicated by Obama's decision in April to add a multi-billion dollar crew-rescue vehicle into NASA's budget request without providing any additional funding. The programs would likely require an additional $1-2 billion per year over the next five years.

"It is still unclear what the implications of that budgetary shortfall would be," Gordon writes. "But to fund such a new and expensive item would require cutting programs in the original budget request submitted in February in order to provide the necessary offsets in the absence of any additional funding, which the Administration has refused to ask for."

Gordon argues despite the constraints, the Committee has done its best to support NASA and fully fund the various research programs identified in the president's budget request. He adds that some of the items cut are not critical to NASA's future.

"We all recognize that this is not a perfect bill and understand that there are several "nice-to-haves" that have been deferred while other worthy activities have been funded at a lower level," Gordon said.

"We don't want to find ourselves in a few years in the same situation where we need a lengthy review and a commission to help rectify the fact that we've been giving NASA more mission than money."

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