Cruz to NASA: Focus more on space, less on Earth

Ledyard King | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The chairman of a key Senate panel overseeing NASA said the agency should be spending more of its limited resources sending astronauts to Mars and less on studying the Earth.

"Almost any American would agree that the core function of NASA is to explore space," GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. on Thursday during a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on space. "That's what inspires little boys and little girls across this country. It's what sets NASA apart from any other agency. I am concerned that NASA has lost its full focus on that core mission."

Cruz was referring to the Obama administration's $18.5 billion budget request for NASA in fiscal 2016. The proposal would increase spending on Earth science programs, such as studying the effects of climate change, while cutting funding for the Space Launch System and Orion capsule being developed to carry astronauts to deep space and eventually to Mars.

But Bolden said Earth science and human exploration are interconnected. Launching satellites to monitor changes in atmospheric and planetary conditions — largely on behalf of other federal agencies — is crucial to understanding how environmental changes such as flooding could threaten NASA's capabilities, he said.

"We can't go anywhere if the Kennedy Space Center (in Florida) goes underwater and we don't know it," he told lawmakers. "It is absolutely critical that we understand Earth's environment because this is the only place we have to live."

NASA's budget request includes $2.86 billion for the Space Launch System and Orion, about $400 million less than the program received this fiscal year. The agency is seeking $1.95 billion for Earth sciences, or about $175 million more than the fiscal 2015 amount.

Overall, NASA is seeking $500 million more than it received in fiscal 2015. It's asking for $645 million to continue work on a planned 2018 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and $1.24 billion to meet a 2017 target for sending astronauts to the International Space Station using private rockets.

Bolden said part of the reason for a lower space exploration budget is that the agency has used private companies to transport cargo to the space station since 2012.

GOP lawmakers in both chambers, many skeptical of human-caused climate change, question whether the Obama administration is fully committed to a Mars mission, given its desire to spend more on satellites studying weather patterns and flood levels.

"It seems to me that NASA perhaps has drifted away from its core mission," Colorado GOP Sen. Cory Gardner told Bolden. "We have so many other agencies and departments that are looking at our soil sciences and our water management."

Bolden defended NASA's deep-space record, saying the agency has spent $49.8 billion on human space exploration since Obama became president in 2009, compared with $11 billion on Earth science programs over the same period.

He pointed to the "nearly flawless" test flight of the Orion crew vehicle in December, and continued progress on the Space Launch System and and the ground-based infrastructure needed to execute a Mars mission.

"We have now progressed farther on this path in sending humans to Mars than at any point in NASA's history," he told lawmakers. "And this budget will keep us marching forward."