Earlier this week, President Obama released his2013 budget proposals, which outline how much money all of the federal government agencies will receive for the 2013 fiscal year. For NASA, and as widely expected, the 2013 budget will be slightly less than it was in 2012, though things could have been a lot, lot worse. Now that the budget proposal is official, NASA has announced what it plans to do with its 2013 funding.
So, how is NASA going to spend its money in 2013?
First of all, planetary science for 2013 got the biggest cut, a whopping 20% as compared to 2012. As a whole, NASA's whole budget was cut by only 0.3%. With planetary science getting the brunt of the cuts, NASA will be making some notable changes there first. The result: NASA will be working on cutting its costs in regards to future robotic missions to Mars.
Now, while fans of planetary science may be a bit bummed by the budget cut, there's a lot that's looking up for NASA in 2013.
First of all, manned spaceflight gets high priority in 2013 as a large portion of NASA's budget will be focused on the development of the heavy-lift SLS rocket, the largest and most powerful ever designed. In addition, the 2013 budget tags a lot of money for cooperation between NASA and private industry, with the final goal being for the private sector to take over low-Earth orbit operations while NASA focuses on deep space exploration. In addition, there is a focus on transforming Kennedy Space Center's shuttle facilities into a 21stcentury-grade spaceport.
For science itself, there are highlights, notably high-priority designation for the James Webb Space Telescope and a mission to return asteroid samples to Earth.
In conclusion, it is easy to see a trend in the 2013 NASA budget: namely that the space agency is starting to put a greater emphasis back on manned spaceflight, which has been languishing since the start of the Obama Administration thanks to the ending of the Space Shuttle Program and the cancellation of Project Constellation, which was set to return Americans to the Moon for the purpose of long-term occupation.
Now, it only remains to be seen what kind of money the House of Representatives feels like dolling out to the various federal agencies as, after all, President Obama's budget request is non-binding in nature and is essentially nothing more than a glorified suggestion.
For more info:
NASA budget page (many links!)
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