The Obama administration's proposed 2012 National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget, estimated to total more than $18.5 billion, scales back funding for private rockets and spacecraft future to take astronauts into orbit, according to government and industry officials. The White House's expenses plan for manned space exploration seeks to avoid last year's argument between Congress and President Barack Obama, according to government and industry officials. Slated to be released Monday, it also imagine step up international cooperation, despite widespread space and scientific budget cutback in Europe.
Mr. Obama's earlier bid to slash the agency's customary manned programs for allegedly being too slow and costly sparked opposition on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers also balked at White House proposal to outsource some core NASA functions by shifting much of the agency's focus to encourage what have been called business space taxis. This time, these officials said, the agency's request is likely to track main element of a bipartisan compromise Congress finally approved last year. That package limited funding for commercial-space efforts but recognized about $11 billion over five years substantially more than the White House requested to accelerate government growth of heavy lift rockets able to reach deeper into space.
For 2012, the bipartisan contract envision roughly $18.7 billion in overall NASA expenditures. Last week, Lori Garver, NASA's deputy administrator, told an industry meeting in Washington that the new budget would be broadly reliable with that compromise, though she didn't elaborate. Days later, Rep. Frank Wolf, the Virginia Republican who heads the House appropriations subcommittee with right over NASA, said the agency was "just wallowing" and lawmakers have been "concerned about the administration's hostility toward manned spaceflight." Commercial space development are years behind plan, and critic still worry about placing undue reliance on them.
NASA astronaut Marsha Ivins, a veteran of five spaceflights, has retired from the agency. "Marsha's incredible depth of mission experience and technical expertise has been a tremendous asset to this office," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We have relied on her expertise for years in many diverse areas, including but not limited to crew provisions, optimal hardware packing, human ratings development, vehicle habitability and orbiter preflight vehicle checks. Her expertise and dedication to NASA's mission will be sorely missed."
Ivins joined NASA in 1974 as an engineer. She worked on space shuttle displays, controls, man-machine engineering and the development of the orbiter's head-up display. She served in Johnson's aircraft operations as a flight engineer for the Shuttle Training Aircraft and copilot of the Gulfstream I. Ivins was selected as an astronaut in 1984. She spent more than 1,300 hours in space during five shuttle flights: STS-32 in 1990, STS-46 in 1992, STS-62 in 1994, STS-81 in 1997 and STS-98 in 2001. Ivins most recently worked within the Astronaut Office supporting the Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation Programs.
NASA awarded on Dec. 27 a 10-year contract to HP Enterprise Services of Herndon, Va., for Agency Consolidated End-user Services, or ACES. This firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract has a maximum value of $2.5 billion and four-year base period with two three-year option periods. The contract will be managed at the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) in Mississippi. The ACES contract will develop a long-term outsourcing arrangement with the commercial sector to provide and manage most of NASA's personal computing hardware .
Agency-standard software, mobile information technology (IT) services, peripherals and accessories, associated end-user services, and supporting infrastructure. NASA personnel use IT to support NASA's core business, scientific, research and computational activities. HP Enterprise Services will provide, manage, secure and maintain these essential IT services for the agency. The NSSC is a partnership among NASA, Computer Sciences Corporation and the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. The NSSC performs selected business activities for all 10 NASA centers.
