Congressional budget plans for additional shuttle flights beyond 2010 retirement

April 28, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressional budget negotiators have included $2.5 billion in their overall federal spending blueprint to fly the space shuttle beyond its scheduled 2010 retirement date, if that’s needed to finish all the missions safely.

The budget provision, requested by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, would help close the five-year gap between the shuttle’s planned retirement and its replacement which won’t be ready until 2015. Flying the shuttle through 2011 would close that gap by at least a year. The move would also shorten the amount of time the U.S. has found it will need to rely solely on the Russians for human access to space. 

The shuttle is scheduled to be retired in the fall of next year, and President Barack Obama’s submitted budget plan provides only enough money for eight shuttle missions to the space station and one for Hubble by the end of 2010.  But Nelson has argued there should be no hard-and-fast deadline for launching those flights or mothballing the shuttle; and, that finishing all the shuttle’s work safely should come first.

Thus, the extra $2.5 billion included in the budget would fund the shuttle program through 2011, if NASA decides it’s unable to safely launch nine times before the fall of next year.

President Obama so far has been sticking with plans to retire NASA's shuttle fleet next year.  His budget blueprint, released by the White House in February, dashed the hopes of many on Florida's Space Coast that Obama might extend the life of the shuttle program -- one of several options examined by his transition team.  Besides the issues of safely finishing all the shuttle’s missions, thousands of jobs hang in the balance for workers in several states including Florida. 

A final vote on the budget is scheduled to come up this week in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

###