Press Release

White House FY 2006 Budget Overview: National Science Foundation and Space Exploration

By SpaceRef Editor
February 7, 2005
Filed under ,

The President’s Budget promotes scientific research that improves our quality of life and our
economic future. The Budget also commits the necessary resources to pursue the President’s
vision for space exploration.

Science and Engineering Research:

  • The President’s 2006 Budget provides an unprecedented $132.3 billion for Federal research and development, a 45% increase since 2001, including $5.6 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF), a 2.4-percent increase and record NSF funding level, to strengthen research in science and engineering. Research has and will continue to yield important scientific discoveries, which will further boost economic growth and enhance Americans’ quality of life.
  • The President’s Budget seeks to attract the most promising U.S. students into science and engineering programs by providing more competitive graduate stipends. NSF provides annual stipends of $30,000 for fellowship and trainee programs, which is significantly higher than the average stipend of $18,000 just five years ago.
  • The Budget provides $803 million for NSF’s targeted investments in networking and information technology, including advanced computing, networking, software, and information-management technologies..
  • The Budget also provides $344 million at NSF for the National Nanotechnology Initiative to advance our understanding of the unique phenomena and processes that occur at the molecular scale and expedite the responsible use of this knowledge to achieve advances in medicine, manufacturing, new high-performance materials, information technology, and energy and environmental technologies.

Cyber Security:

  • The 2006 Budget provides $94 million in funding to NSF for research related to cyber security, which is critical to defending against threats to Information Technology (IT) infrastructure.
  • Among these activities, the Budget provides $10 million in funding for the Cybercorps program, which funds grants for graduate and undergraduate education in cyber security that will strengthen the future of the IT security workforce.

Space Exploration:

  • The Budget provides $16.5 billion for NASA, a 2.4-percent increase from the 2005 enacted level. This Budget will allow NASA to make progress toward realizing the President’s Vision for Space Exploration and other agency priorities in a fiscally responsible manner.
  • The Budget provides $3.2 billion, an 18-percent increase from 2005, for Exploration Systems. Funding includes:
    • $750 million for the crew exploration vehicle, which will carry astronauts to the moon in the next decade;
    • $800 million for research and technology to ensure the health, habitation, safety and effectiveness of future astronauts;
    • $920 million for investments in the technologies and capabilities that will make an ambitious and sustainable 21st-Century space exploration program possible.
    • $320 million for a redirected space nuclear program intended to further open the space frontier by providing large amounts of electric power for activities that cannot use solar power.

  • The Budget provides approximately $1.9 billion for the Space Station program, an 11- percent increase from the 2005 enacted level. The increase is required to support the pace of assembly operations planned for 2006, shore up program reserves depleted during the Shuttle hiatus, and initiate the purchase of alternate cargo and crew transportation services needed to supplement and then ultimately replace the Shuttle once it retires in 2010. The Budget also provides $4.5 billion for the Space Shuttle program to continue Space Station assembly and support.
  • The Budget provides approximately $4.2 billion for NASA’s programs to explore the solar system and universe and to research the Sun and its impact on Earth and the space environment, a 2.1-percent increase over 2005. This funding level supports missions in development, including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, James Webb Space Telescope, Solar Dynamics Observatory, and several Mars-bound spacecraft.

SpaceRef staff editor.