Ask OCE — February 24, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 5

The President’s Fiscal Year 2007 Budget released on February 6th includes $16.8 billion for NASA, a 3.2 percent increase over NASA’s 2006 budget. The request did not count emergency supplemental spending incurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The FY 2007 budget affirms the President’s commitment to the Vision for Space Exploration. At approximately 0.7 percent of the entire Federal budget, NASA’s share represents a modest investment in extending the frontiers of space exploration, aeronautics research, and scientific discovery.

The budget request addresses several important ongoing and future NASA initiatives.

• $5.3 billion for agency science missions and over $724 million for aeronautics research.
• Continuing work on the International Space Station (ISS), fulfilling international partner commitments, and employing the minimum number of Shuttle flights to complete the project.
• $500 million for cross-agency support programs, such as science and math education, collaborations with commercial industry, and the goal of developing unified, agency-wide management systems to examine, stabilize, and enhance the agency’s financial situation.
• Development of Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) no later than 2014.

The agency’s budget for Space and Earth Science will grow by 1.5 percent in FY 2007 and 1 percent between 2008 and 2011.

In the arena of Aeronautics Research, $724.4 million has been allocated in the President’s budget to master core competencies in subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flight.

+ Read the NASA budget.