NASA is staging a news conference at this hour, beginning around 2:30 p.m., to go over its proposed 2009 budget. You can also click here to play NASA TV live video in a 2nd smaller window. And, here is the early summary of the budget proposal from our Washington correspondent Eun Kim. Also, at the bottom of this post, you can download all of the public records related to the budget.President Bush is pushing for a 1.8 percent increase in NASA's budget for next year.
The recommendation came as part of the $3.1 trillion proposal the White House submitted to Congress.
NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale will hold a news conference on the budget this afternoon, but during an earlier briefing for reporters, agency officials gave this assessment on the $17.6 billion proposal: everything is status quo.
The proposed budget would keep NASA on track to retire its aging Space Shuttle by October 2010. It also would keep in place the current gap until the next generation of spacecraft could resume human spaceflight. The budget proposal, which devotes $5.77 billion for space operations, incorporates a March 2015 date for the first launch of the Orion crew vehicle.
NASA also predicts at least 11 more shuttle flights in the next two years _ ten to the International Space station and one to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Bart Gordon, the Tennessee Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Science and Technology, said he continues to review the president's request in regard to NASA.
"At first blush, it unfortunately appears to be a 'business-as-usual' budget that does little to address the significant challenges NASA is facing," he said. "In short, it continues the administration's practice of underfunding the agency relative to the missions the agency has been asked to undertake."
He took aim at the "problematic" human spaceflight programming for failing to provide money to accelerate the schedule of Orion and leaving "question marks about the administration's commitment to the utilization and support of the International Space Station once the Shuttle is retired."
"The committee will be taking a close look at the President's NASA budget request in upcoming hearings as part of our preparations for reauthorizing NASA's programs," Gordon said.
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