The Planned Budget For NASA Has Just Been Released
As many of us know, NASA is a government agency. This means that each year it receives its funding from the annual federal budget passed by the United States Congress. A lot of different factors and considerations go into this and it also has a major impact on the agency. At the end of the day, they need money in order to develop, test, and launch rockets.
Only a few days ago, the White House released its budget request of $26 billion for NASA in the year 2023. This request is full of information regarding the different sectors and projects within NASA, and exactly how much funding each should receive. It also provides valuable insight into the government’s current view of the agency and what to expect in the coming years. While this is good news for NASA, at this point it is still only a request.
This year in 2022, the agency received around $24 billion. This report is working towards an 8% increase which is quite substantial for NASA. With many ambitious projects coming up, especially the Space Launch System, overall Artemis missions, and more, the agency needs all the funding it can get. Here I will go more in-depth into the recent budget request and what we should expect for the agency in 2023 and beyond.
Budget Request Overview
Looking at the release of this budget request, it includes multiple very long and detailed documents highlighting not only the specific amounts for different missions, but also a lot of reasoning behind the choices as well. One of the first paragraphs highlights that, “President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Budget for NASA reflects the Administration’s confidence in this Agency, our daring missions, and the can-do spirit of our workforce. For over six decades, NASA has been a beacon of exploration, technological development, and discovery. This Budget empowers the Agency to revitalize and strengthen American leadership in aerospace, address climate change, promote equity, and expand an industry that creates good-paying American jobs.” The first important information is the exact amount this budget requests for 2023 and beyond. Last year in 2021, NASA had a budget of $23.3 billion, followed by $24.8 billion this year in 2022. This most recent report is hoping the agency will receive $26 billion. This is a significant increase and would help a lot on future missions and projects.
Its important to point out that the FY 2023 President’s Budget for NASA and accompanying 2022 NASA Strategic Plan, are fully aligned with the Administration’s priorities of restoring America’s global standing; driving economic growth; addressing climate change; and promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. At $25.97 billion, the FY 2023 Budget for NASA underscores the Agency’s unique ability to advance these priorities. With this investment, NASA will continue to lead a new era of space exploration that advances our understanding of Earth’s changing climate, inspires the Nation and the world, promotes equitable opportunities to work with and for NASA, and creates good-paying jobs in the growing space economy. In addition, Administrator of NASA Bill Nelson was satisfied with the request and mentioned that after recent success with the James Webb Space Telescope and upcoming Artemis plans, the future of NASA is very exciting.
Funding can be a very complicated and expensive problem for NASA. It involves a lot of changing opinions and a lot of factors that are outside the agency’s control. This can have a direct positive or negative impact on future missions and specific projects. One example could be spacesuits. As of right now, astronauts on the International Space Station are using very outdated spacesuits for spacewalks and more. Not to mention the upcoming Artemis missions require new spacesuits for Moon exploration. However, the development of the xEVA has had a lot of issues over recent years. One of the reasons has to do with funding or lack thereof. Ideally, an increase like the one just released will go through and provide the agency with all the necessary resources for the Moon and beyond.
Impact On Future Missions
Now that we know some of the background information surrounding this budget request, we can take a closer look at how exactly it will fund and affect future missions. One important aspect of this budget request is the fact that rather than request additional funding to be used for a long list of new projects, they instead increased funding for current and upcoming planned missions. This is extremely important and will play a significant role in getting things done as time goes on. Within the budget request, the $26 billion is separated into many different categories. One of the biggest is for the Deep Space Exploration Systems. The FY 2023 Budget for the Deep Space Exploration Systems account provides for the development of systems and capabilities needed for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. With the re-organization of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in 2022, and corresponding changes to budget structure, the Deep Space Exploration Systems account, and existing underlying programs, are now organized into the following four themes.
These themes include Common Exploration Systems Development, Artemis Campaign Development, Mars Campaign Development, and Human Exploration Requirements & Architecture. The Deep Space Exploration Systems category was requested to receive nearly $7.5 billion. This would be a significant increase from previous years such as 2022 where the budget provided around $6.75 billion. This additional funding goes straight towards all the projects for future missions to the Moon and beyond. For example, around $2.6 billion would go towards SLS, $780 million for Gateway, $1.5 billion for HLS, $275 million for xEVA space suits, and more. The report mentions that, “The Space Launch System Program’s launch vehicle production and certification for flight, will continue at Michoud Assembly Facility and Marshall Space Flight Center along with engine and core stage testing at Stennis Space Center. Key launch vehicle components will be delivered to EGS at Kennedy Space Center for integration into the final flight launch vehicle with the Orion crew vehicle. The Budget provides funding for development of the Block 1B upgrade for a new upper stage to the SLS. These are only a few of the future goals with the increased budget.
The report goes into even more depth, highlighting exactly what the budget increase will provide. It first mentions, “With the $26.0 billion provided in the FY 2023 Budget request, 4.7% increase over 2022 and 8.0% increase over FY 2022 enacted, NASA will enable Moon to Mars exploration and bolster United States leadership in human spaceflight with $7.478 billion, a $687 million increase over the previous year, to advance the Artemis mission and the return of American astronauts to the Moon as early as 2025.” It will also “Support continued human presence in low-Earth orbit with operations of the International Space Station through 2030 and $224 million to collaborate with U.S. industry on commercial space stations, initiating the transition from ISS when these new space stations become available in the late 2020s.” Advance robotic exploration of the Moon, Mars, and more. All of which require a lot of funding in order to be successful.
With around $7.5 billion going to the Deep Space Exploration Systems, this brings up the question of where the other $18.5 billion is planned to go. The next category is general Space Operations with a requested budget of nearly $4.3 billion. Part of this goes towards Space Transportation to continue NASA’s partnership with the United States commercial space industry to operate safe, reliable, and affordable systems to transport crew and cargo to and from the ISS. The rest is for ISS operations, Commercial LEO development, and more. The next big category is Space Technology with a budget of $1.44 billion. This sector covers ground and flight testing, innovation and partnerships, and unique projects of the future. After Space Technology is Science, with a very large budget of just under $8 billion. Science has always been extremely valuable and provides unique results in the environment of space and beyond. The $8 billion goes towards different observation equipment, Mars samples, and much more. Next is Aeronautics Research with a budget of just under $1 billion. This is for Advanced Air Vehicles, revolutionary aviation concepts, and more. The last two are Safety, Security & Mission Services with a budget of $3.6 billion and STEM Engagement with a budget of $150 million. Altogether this makes up the request of $26 billion for the year 2023.
Conclusion
The process of NASA getting a certain amount of funding is quite complex and difficult. There are many different factors that all need to be accounted for. Either way, the recent budget request is a good sign and increases the agency’s resources by around 8%. However, this is only a request and still needs to go through other forms of government. With many ambitious missions such as Artemis just around the corner, the agency could use all the funding it can get. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.
