NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is making yet another appeal to Congress tomorrow to secure the necessary funding for the Artemis program in its fiscal year 2021 budget. Without the funding in place by end of March 2021, Bridenstine says it will will be difficult to meet the timeline of 2024 to land American astronauts on the Moon.
In speaking with journalists late in the day yesterday, and after NASA had released its Lunar Exploration Program Overview earlier in the day, the NASA administrator pulled no punches.
NASA’s Lunar Exploration Program Overview, available below, outlines the need to secure US$28 billion for the Artemis program between fiscal years (FY) 2021 through 2025. Of that, NASA needs to secure approximately US$7 billion for FY2021. While half of that funding has been secured, NASA is short US$2.6 billion for the Initial Human Landing System line item. The House of Representatives has approved US$600 million of the needed US$3.2 billion.
To make matters worse for NASA, the US FY2020 budget ends on September 30th and no budget is in place for FY2021. Bridenstine says he expects Congress and the White House will approve a short term Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government when the next US fiscal year starts on October 1st. That doesn’t help NASA. Instead Bridentsine believes that after a short CR comes to an end in early to mid-December, an omnibus budget will hopefully be in place.
In talking about some type of omnibus bill Bridenstine said “and I think that if we can have that done before Christmas, we’re still on track for a 2024 Moon landing.” He then said if a CR extends to March “without the US$3.2 billion, you know, it becomes more difficult.”
In other words, NASA has six months to convince Congress to give them the funding they say they need to keep the Artemis program on track for a 2024 human landing.
A sustainable Moon program
During the teleconference Bridenstine also made another important point. It’s not a new one, but it is worth mentioning in that it does have implications for the international partners, including Canada.
Bridenstine was asked what NASA means when it says its developing a sustainable program and whether the Lunar Gateway will be involved.
While NASA is focused right now on the budget for this coming fiscal year and the following three years, it is doing so with a longer term goal in mind. And Bridentsine wants to make sure the public, and importantly Congress understands this. The purpose of the program is not to just to visit the Moon again and leave. The “Lunar Exploration Program” as its now being called, is meant to build a sustainable permanent presence on the Moon similar to what’s been achieved on the International Space Station. It’s that vision that the international partners believe in, have bought in too. That’s why Canada committed $2.05 billion over 24 years towards its lunar programs.
Bridenstine put it this way, “so we want you to know, we’ve got two efforts. One is to get to the Moon by 2024. And then to be sustainable by the end of the decade. And, I think the Gateway is essential to that sustainable effort.”
He then spoke to international partners saying “it’s also important to make sure that our international partners understand the level of commitment commitment that we have to the Gateway, because they’re a key part of helping us develop the Gateway. And that reduces the cost to the American taxpayer. So so we’re grateful to our international partners for their collaboration on the Gateway.”
Now while elements of the Gateway will be ready by 2024, it isn’t necessary to meet the 2024 deadline the White House has imposed to have Americans on the Moon. However, the point Bridenstine was trying to make about that the Gateway, is that it is essential to a sustainable international lunar program.
While Canada and the other international partners can rest assured that NASA is including them in their lunar plans, it is, as it has always been, up to Congress to make the funds available to make the goal of a sustainable human lunar exploration program a reality. And time is running out on NASA to meet its White House imposed deadline.