Letter from Aerospace Executives to Sen. Hutchison Regarding NASA’s Budget
May 10,2007
The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Space,
Aeronautics and Related Sciences
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
United States Senate
SR-284 Russell Building
Washington DC 20510-4304
Dear Senator Hutchison:
As leaders of our nation’s largest aerospace and technology companies, we employ hundreds of thousands of Americans and know first hand the formidable challenges in today’s global marketplace. We write to thank you for your past support of NASA and to urge you to enact a top-line increase for NASA’s FY 2008 budget. Without this increase, our nation faces the very real risk of losing our uniquely critical industrial base and human space access capability.
NASA plays a crucial role in advancing our nation’s innovation agenda. NASA programs promote our scientific, economic and educational interests, and contribute to our national and homeland security requirements. In the past few years, we have witnessed the rise of strong national space programs in China, India, and Japan, and a resurgence in Russia. We face major challenges to our space leadership and our national security.
In 2010, as the Shuttle is retired and we make the transition to the next generation of human spaceflight systems, the United States will become temporarily reliant on foreign human space transportation capabilities, if domestic commercial orbital space transportation does not emerge. In order to minimize this potential gap of independent American access to space, it is critical that we maintain funding and program stability for Orion and Ares I, sufficient to ensure a rapid and safe transition for American human space exploration. Future U.S. leadership in space is at stake.
This nation has an obligation to future generations of young Americans who, we hope, will focus their studies on science, math and engineering. Creating good, high-paying jobs in the aerospace and technology sectors will ensure that America maintains the technical human capital necessary for our country to retain its global economic strength well into the 21st century. We are deeply concerned that there is a growing disparity between the programs that NASA has been asked to accomplish and the resources the agency has been provided.
The FY 2007 Joint Resolution reduced NASA’s human spaceflight program budget by $670 million, the practical effect of which will be at least a six-month delay in the launch of the new Orion and Ares I space systems. NASA’s FY 2008 request is $17.3 billion, which is $1.4 billion below the congressionally authorized level. The costs resulting from Hurricane Katrina, Space Shuttle Return-to-Flight and the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission pose continuing challenges to NASA.
The FY 2008 budget request is not adequate to accomplish all of NASA’s important missions. Therefore, we respectfully request that Congress appropriate the authorized $1.4 billion above the FY 08 budget request to minimize our nation’s gap in human spaceflight capability, ensure US. leadership in space, and contribute to our national and homeland security and international competitiveness.
Sincerely,
Signed
J. Scott Neish
President
Aerojet-General Corporation
Daniel J. Murphy
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
ATK
David L. Taylor
President and Chief Executive Officer
Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Corp
Jim Albaugh
President and Chief Executive Officer
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems
Howard Lance
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Harris Corporation
Robert J. Gillette
President & Chief Executive Officer
Honeywell Aerospace
C. Donald Bishop
President and Chief Executive Officer
InDyne
Rogers Starr
President
Jacobs Technology
Robert J. Stevens
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Ronald D. Sugar
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Northrop Grumman Corporation
David W. Thompson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Orbital Sciences Corporation
[pending]
William H. Swanson
President and Chief Executive Officer
Raytheon Company
Randolph H. Brinkley
President and Chief Executive Officer
Rocketplane Kistler Inc.
Ken Dahlberg
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
SAIC
Harold S. Stinger
President and Chief Executive Officer
SGT, INC
Elon R. Musk
Chief Executive Officer
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
Michael Cerneck
Chief Executive Officer
Swales Aerospace
James Link
President
Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc.
Michael C. Gass
President and Chief Executive Officer
United Launch Alliance
Michael J. McCuIley
President and Chief Executive Officer
United Space Alliance
Louis Chenevert
President and Chief Operating Officer
United Technologies Corporation
George Melton
President and Chief Executive Officer
Wyle Laboratories, Inc.
