The following is excerpted from NASA's FY 2002 Appropriations bill, as passed by both houses of Congress.
Space Science
The conferees have agreed to provide $2,848,937,000 for space science programs, an increase of $62,575,000 to the budget request.
The conferees agree with the House that by merging the budgets for aeronautics and space into a single `aerospace technology' program element several years ago, NASA has made it virtually impossible to account for the current investment in aeronautics. For this reason, the conferees direct NASA to reestablish a consolidated aeronautics line in the fiscal year 2003 budget submission that comprehensively covers all research base, focused, and advanced technology programs, and related test facilities and civil service costs. NASA should also provide a clear budget crosscut identifying all aeronautics programmatic activities in the current budget structure in its initial fiscal year 2002 operating plan.
The conferees recognize the need for maintaining core capabilities at NASA centers with responsibility for space science missions and operations. As a result, the conferees will support permitting the Europa Orbiter (EO) mission to be sole sourced intramurally, provided that the NASA Administrator certifies to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and the Senate in the fiscal year 2002 operating plan that such action is essential to maintain said core capabilities. The conferees expect that in making any such determination, the Administrator will guarantee that there is a specific and demonstrable plan to ensure that sufficient core and focused program outer planetary Advanced Technology Development (ATD) funds will be available to extramural entities in industry and academia through full and open competition, with the five-year profile for this competition specified in the fiscal year 2003 budget submission. NASA should proceed with the selection of Europa science instruments as planned and shall cap the total EO program costs (ATD and execution of all phases A/E) at $1,000,000,000. No reduction for EO instrument support to the selected science teams should be made in fiscal year 2002.
The conferees have not accepted the Senate proposal to reduce NASA's space operations budget by $25,000,000 by transferring Telecommunication and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD) functions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC). The conferees note that NASA has transferred some non-critical positions to the CSOC contract and direct NASA to continue this effort by transferring no less than five percent of the non-critical positions to CSOC and work toward increasing this percentage in future years if warranted. In addition, the conferees transfer TMOD to the Office of Space Science and direct that any savings resulting from the transfer of TMOD positions be reinvested in science missions.
The conferees agree to the following changes to the budget request:
1. An increase of $1,675,000 for the Center for Space Sciences at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.
2. An increase of $3,000,000 for space solar power.
3. An increase of $1,900,000 for the Mid-American Geospatial Information Center based at the University of Texas at Austin, Center for Space Research.
4. The conferees direct $22,000,000 be used to continue the construction of the Propulsion Research Laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center, of which $13,000,000 is derived from the Office of Space Science in-space propulsion augmentation and $9,000,000 is derived from the Office of Aerospace Technology in-space propulsion program. The funds remaining in the Office of Space Science in-space propulsion program are to be used for advanced technology development for planetary exploration and shall be competed on the same basis as other advanced technology development programs.
5. An increase of $3,000,000 for the Sun-Earth Connections program for Solar Probe. NASA should consolidate management for this mission with its existing SEC/Living With a Star program in lieu of the proposed termination.
6. An increase of $10,000,000 for the Sun-Earth Connections program for Living With a Star (LWS) program for a total of $50,200,000 in fiscal year 2002. The conferees believe that understanding solar variability and its effect on earth and mankind is of paramount importance as we strive to understand our galaxy. Increasing our knowledge of the effects of solar variability and disturbances on terrestrial climate change and being able to provide advanced warning of energetic particle events that affect the safety of humans and space flight are also of particular importance. The proposed funding restoration will allow LWS to proceed on the original NASA plan of Sun-Earth connected System Science whereby both the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Geospace Missions Network will proceed in a coordinated manner to attain the program objectives. All LWS and SEC program funds in 2002 should be used exclusively for relevant ATD, science support and spacecraft development activities. Any capital projects to support the program, apart from the standard de minimis facility renovations under $500,000 should be requested in subsequent years through the standard construction of facilities program element. This LWS funding augmentation is in addition to the $8,900,000 provided for future solar terrestrial probes as requested in the budget.
7. An increase of $3,000,000 for the Center on Life in Extreme Environments at Montana State University.
8. An increase of $1,000,000 for the development of advanced materials for batteries and fuel cells, to be conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University.
9. An increase of $30,000,000 for the Pluto Kuiper Belt (PKB) mission. The conferees direct NASA to proceed with its plan for source selection, but recognize the launch dates may be altered due to delays in the source selection process. Funds provided should be used to initiate appropriate spacecraft and science instrument development as well as launch vehicle procurement. The conferees direct NASA to consolidate PKB development funds within the Outer Planets line beginning in fiscal year 2003.
The conferees have provided the budget request of $92,100,000 for advanced technology development related to the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) and expect NASA to vigorously pursue the development of the NGST and submit an out-year budget plan, concurrent with the submission of the fiscal year 2003 budget, for soliciting development and management proposals with the goal of a launch in 2007. If technical and budgetary constraints preclude the
launch of NGST by 2007, the conferees wish to underscore their strong desire that there should be no gap between the end of the operations for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the onset of operations for NGST. As part of the out-year budget plan, NASA should outline its transition plan to guarantee uninterrupted continuity between HST and NGST.
The conferees agree to provide the full budget request for the Mars program. NASA is directed to prepare a detailed plan, to be submitted to the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate concurrently with the submission of the President's fiscal year 2003 budget request, on future Mars missions beyond the proposed 2007 mission. The plan should have a detailed definition on the program's content, five-year budget forecast, and schedule, and shall include a five-year profile to make significant advanced technology funding available to extramural partners.