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Senator Richard Shelby after his annual 2013 Washington Update at Huntsville's Von Braun Center. (Sarah Cole/al.com)

(Sarah Cole)

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) ripped NASA today for underfunding the Space Launch System (SLS) while "spending billions to help private companies develop a launch vehicle" with almost no financial oversight.

Shelby, the vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released his statement at a hearing on NASA's 2015 budget request. His comments were directed at NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

"While your statement depicts SLS as critical to NASA's exploration goals, the requested budget does not reflect a true commitment to that endeavor," said Shelby. "Instead, the budget request maintains a resource level that underfunds SLS and inserts unnecessary budgetary and schedule risk into the future of human exploration. For the first time in recent memory, NASA has a strategic plan for space exploration that will utilize one platform to meet the needs of multiple exploration missions well into the future. That platform is SLS.... None of this will be possible if we short change this effort."

On commercial space, Shelby said NASA has "little or no access to the books and records associated with its investment." None of the companies competing to build private space taxis "will publicly disclose its investment in this so-called 'public private partnership,'" Shelby said. "Is the federal government a majority investor or a minority investor?"

Shelby said NASA's 2015 budget proposal is $186 million below this year's allocation. The Space Launch System is being developed in Alabama at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center.