[meteorite-list] NASA Administrator Bolden's Statement on the NASA FY 2014 Budget Request

[Ron Baalke]

April 10, 2013

David Weaver 
Headquarters, Washington                            
202-358-1600 
david.s.weaver at nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 13-104

NASA ADMINISTRATOR BOLDEN'S STATEMENT ON THE NASA FY 2014 BUDGET REQUEST

WASHINGTON -- The following statement is from NASA Administrator 
Charles Bolden on the administration's budget request for the 2014 
fiscal year: 

"Today, we unveil President Obama's Fiscal Year 2014 budget request 
for NASA -- a $17.7 billion investment in our nation's future. Our 
budget ensures the United States will remain the world's leader in 
space exploration and scientific discovery for years to come, while 
making critical advances in aerospace and aeronautics to benefit the 
American people. 

"This budget focuses on an ambitious new mission to expand America's 
capabilities in space, steady progress on new space and aeronautic 
technologies, continued success with commercial space partnerships, 
and far-reaching science programs to help us understand Earth and the 
universe in which we live. It keeps us competitive, opens the door to 
new destinations and vastly increases our knowledge. 

"Our drive to make new discoveries and dare new frontiers continues to 
improve life for people everywhere and raise the bar of human 
achievement. 

"The space station remains the centerpiece of our human exploration 
efforts. It allows us to perform technology demonstrations and 
scientific research only possible in microgravity, all while helping 
to improve life here on Earth and plan for missions into deep space. 

"With America now successfully resupplying the International Space 
Station with cargo launched from the U.S. by American companies, this 
budget ensures that our astronauts will also be launched from U.S. 
soil on spacecraft built by American industry within the next four 
years, ending our reliance on other nations and opening up new 
commercial markets in space. 

"We are developing a first-ever mission to identify, capture and 
relocate an asteroid. This mission represents an unprecedented 
technological feat that will lead to new scientific discoveries and 
technological capabilities and help protect our home planet. This 
asteroid initiative brings together the best of NASA's science, 
technology and human exploration efforts to achieve the president's 
goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025. We will use existing 
capabilities such as the Orion crew capsule and Space Launch System 
(SLS) rocket, and develop new technologies like solar electric 
propulsion and laser communications -- all critical components of 
deep space exploration. 

"NASA's ground-breaking science missions are reaching farther into our 
solar system, revealing unknown aspects of our universe and providing 
critical data about our home planet and threats to it. Spacecraft are 
speeding to Jupiter, Pluto and Ceres while satellites peer into other 
galaxies, spot planets around other stars, and uncover the origins of 
the universe. The budget funds our amazing fleet of scientific 
spacecraft, including strong support for study of the Earth and its 
response to natural or human-induced changes. And on the heels of the 
most daring mission to Mars in history last year, provides funding to 
launch another mission to the Red Planet. We also will continue our 
steady progress to develop and conduct critical tests on the James 
Webb Space Telescope, leading to its planned launch in 2018. 

"While reaching for new heights in space, we're creating new jobs 
right here on Earth -- especially for the next generation of American 
scientists and engineers -- by supporting cutting edge aeronautics 
and space technology innovations and research and development that 
will help fuel the nation's economy for years to come." 

The NASA budget and supporting information are available at: 

http://www.nasa.gov/budget 

-end-