NASA chief: Money will be tight for astronomy

Wednesday, January 11, 2006; Posted: 9:12 a.m. EST (14:12 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- NASA chief Michael Griffin warned astronomers on Tuesday that funds for their programs will be tighter than they have been in the past decade as NASA focuses more on manned space missions.

"The growth of science within NASA has been in the 5 to 7 percent range, annualized over the last decade or so, and that's been great," Griffin told members of the American Astronomical Society.

"We're in a budget environment right now when that level of growth can't be maintained, although science at NASA will still have growth. But we are all hurting."

Astronomers have voiced persistent concerns that the Bush administration's vision for space exploration -- which calls for human missions to the moon and eventually Mars -- unduly concentrates on human exploration to the detriment of robotic space missions.

Roughly two-thirds of NASA's $16.4 billion budget for fiscal 2006 goes to support the space shuttle, the international space station and the development of a new system to get people into space. Space science programs will be getting about $5.4 billion this year, compared to $5.5 billion in 2005.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/01/11/space.nasa.funding.reut/index.html