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Highlights of Bush's Space
Initiative
By The Associated Press
January 14, 2004 Highlights of the space initiative President Bush announced Wednesday at
NASA headquarters:
CURRENT PROGRAMS:
* Return the space shuttle to flight and fulfill the U.S. commitment to the
International Space Station.
* Halt most work on the space station by 2010, confining the American role
there to studies of the health effects of space flight.
* Retire the space shuttle fleet around the same time.
NEXT GENERATION:
* Increase the use of robotic explorers throughout the solar system.
* Start developing a new "Crew Exploration Vehicle" for venturing beyond
Earth's orbit; test it by 2008 and launch its first mission by 2014. Use it to
shuttle astronauts to the space station.
* Send unmanned probes to the moon by 2008.
* Return Americans to the moon between 2015 and 2020.
* Establish a long-term presence on the moon to serve as a launching area
for "human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond."
COSTS:
* Bush offered no overall price tag for the new ventures; his aides
declined to provide one.
* Bush would launch his plan by increasing NASA spending by a total of $1
billion over five years, and by shifting $11 billion from existing space
spending toward his priorities.
* NASA spending would still represent less than 1 percent of the total
federal budget.
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