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President Trump's 2020 budget request includes $ 21.02 billion for NASA, which funds the agency's ongoing efforts to develop satellites and commercial infrastructure in low Earth orbit and continue building and developing launch of the world's most powerful rocket and crew Orion return astronauts on the moon.
NASA's director Jim Bridenstine met Monday with agency staff at the Kennedy Space Center and announced that the draft budget is funding a mini-station called Gateway, which will be launched in lunar orbit. the 1920s – return to the lunar surface for further exploration.
Bridenstine said the budget request reflected the priorities of the Space Policy Directive 1, signed by President Trump in December 2017, calling on NASA to encourage the commercialization of low-Earth orbit, including edge of the International Space Station, while putting the emphasis on the long term plans to retreat to the moon and eventually on Mars.
If NASA maintains its current course – and if Congress continues to support – the astronauts will land on the moon by 2028, according to a summary table of the budget.
The budget, which focuses on increasing business operations close to home and returning astronauts to the moon, promotes human exploration. The space science budget of the agency cost $ 600 million over the 2019 budget.
As such, the budget would provide $ 1.458 billion for ongoing operations with the International Space Station and $ 1.828 billion for space transportation, including the ongoing development of commercially developed CX Dragon ferries and CST ferries. -100 Boeing Starliner.
Crew Dragon from SpaceX has just completed its first unmanned test flight to the station and Boeing plans to do the same later this spring. If all goes well, astronauts could begin to embark on the crew dragon in the middle of summer, eight years after the removal of the space shuttle. The first piloted Starliner flights are expected in the autumn.
Once one or both of the spacecraft declared operational, NASA will be able to end its dependence on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for the transport of astronauts to and from the space station.
"We have just seen a SpaceX Crew Dragon dock with the International Space Station, deliver goods, finally do a lot of testing, disarm, get home and land safely," said Bridenstine. "This is a first step in a much longer mission for NASA to become a unique customer among many low-Earth-orbit customers in a robust commercial market."
The result, Bridenstine hopes, will be "multiple suppliers competing for costs and innovation".
"We need to reduce costs, we need to increase access, we need to make spaceflight more accessible to more people, including commercial activities," he said. "We're talking about manufacturing, tourism, pharmaceuticals, maybe fiber optics. We need to develop this very robust commercial market in low Earth orbit. "
With the establishment of private sector operations near the Earth, NASA's operations can rely on more "common" aspects of space transportation, the agency will focus on the implementation of a program ambitious exploration of space in depth.
The fiscal year 2020 budget request includes $ 3.441 billion to continue the development of the gigantic super booster SLS (super space launch system) and the Orion crew capsules that it will carry on the lunar orbit, as well as ground based systems and software.
"The SLS is not reusable, but it's an essential part of the architecture that allows us to make the Moon reusable," Bridenstine said. "We are talking about the launch of Gateway and Orion and the European Service Module, all of this is part of a reusable architecture."
As for SLS, which was scheduled to make its first test flight in 2020 and its first pilot flight in 2022, "we are talking about a rocket larger than any other rocket ever built in history. of humanity, with a payload fairing capable of supporting volumes that we have never seen before, larger than the Statue of Liberty, "he said.
The new rocket will carry "not only astronauts on the moon, but also co-manifested payloads. It is a strategic transformation capability for the United States of America. "
The budget includes $ 1.580 billion for the development by the public and private sectors of reusable pilot lunar landers, Gateway's solar power and propulsion module and other major components enabling astronauts to make short visits from from 2024.
The budget request maintains NASA's focus on Mars exploration, fully funding the March 2020 rover, which will look for signs of biological activity passed on the Red Planet and will store soil and rock samples for the purpose. return to Earth aboard a future spacecraft.
"It's an incredible ability," said Bridenstine. "For the first time, we will cache samples from Mars for a possible return. We will also determine how to use carbon dioxide on Mars to create oxygen that humans will eventually breathe. … March 2020 is fully funded by this budget request. "
Other global scientific initiatives include Mars and Europa Clipper sample return studies, scheduled for launch in 2023 and designed to fly Jupiter Europa's moon-flyings over a crust of ice underwater ocean possibly habitable.
The James Webb Space Telescope is NASA's most ambitious mission in space science ($ 9.66 billion and by far the most expensive). With years behind schedule due to technical problems and management errors, the James Webb is currently undergoing the latest testing and verification before its planned launch in 2021. It will receive $ 352.6 million in the 2019 budget.
"As a NASA administrator, I struggled to get on the hill and talk about the James Webb Space Telescope," Bridenstine said. "Some of you may have seen these hearings and they are not fun. But I will also tell you this: this administration is attached to the James Webb Space Telescope and we have bipartite support. "
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