Like members of Congress, reaction to the FY07 budget submission for NASA is widely varied. A sampling of comments:
- The Coalition for Space Exploration says that because of the FY07 budget proposal, the Vision for Space Exploration “will be able to continue on course with its bold plan of expanding the space frontier.” The group now wants Congress “to strongly consider in its deliberations whether or not spending seven-tenths of 1 percent of the Federal Budget is adequate to properly fund the nation’s most critical goals in spaceflight, science and aeronautics.”
- The Space Foundation (which runs the Coalition for Space Exploration on behalf of the coalition’s member companies) casts a similar vote of confidence in the budget. “The Vision for Space Exploration and the President’s budget proposal have NASA headed in the right direction. This is the right vector, but it is time for more thrust.”
- The Aerospace Industries Association has a mixed reaction, noting that the support for the VSE is offset by cuts in aeronautics. “We are very concerned that the budget would continue a debilitating decline in aeronautics research investment,” AIA president John Douglass said in a statement.
- The Planetary Society is not pleased with the budget’s shift in emphasis away from robotic space exploration in favor of funding for shuttle, station, and manned exploration. Of particular concern is NASA’s decision not to develop a Europa orbiter mission, indefinitely defer (or cancel) Terrestrial Planet Finder, and a three-year delay in the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). “Using money intended for science programs to fund continued operation of the shuttle is a serious setback to the U.S. space program,” said society president Wes Huntress (a former NASA associate administrator for space science). “NASA is essentially transferring funds from a popular and highly productive program into one scheduled for termination.”
