White House FY2007 Budget Request

The Administration's Fiscal Year 2007 budget request was released on Monday. As expected, increases were primarily in national and homeland security areas and science and education efforts related to the American Competitiveness Initiative announced in the State of the Union Address.

The proposed budget for NASA is just under $16.8B. Exploration Systems, particularly the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) received a big increase over last year's budget. Costs for maintaining the Space Shuttle and finishing the International Space Station have put pressure on the rest of the budget, causing some science and aeronautics programs to be deferred or cancelled. There is $150M in the budget to continue preparations for a Shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, pending a safe Shuttle Return To Flight.

Jeff Foust provides reactions from several space organizations.