May 12 2005
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, who had been in his new position for only one month, appeared as the sole witness before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, to testify regarding NASA's FY 2006 budget request. Key issues that the panel discussed with Griffin included several related to the Space Shuttle Program: the four-year gap between the planned decommissioning of the Space Shuttle in 2010 and the first scheduled flight of the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) in 2014; the United States' obligation to complete the ISS before the retirement of the Space Shuttle; and servicing the HST. In his responses, Griffin stated that, in mid-July, he would release a plan for the first flight of the new CEV. He suggested that, if the ISS partners postponed some scheduled on-board scientific research, they could complete the ISS before the Shuttle's retirement, without cancelling any research programs. Regarding the HST, Griffin stated his opposition to a robotic servicing mission and said that he wished to assess the first two Shuttle flights before making a decision. The panel also discussed recommended cuts in Earth Science research. Griffin responded that NASA had listened to the concerns of the scientific community and was reexamining that area. Griffin clarified that NASA would not cut science programs to fund the spaceflight program. (Richard M. Jones for the American Institute of Physics, “New NASA Administrator Appears Before Senate Appropriators,” FYI Bulletin 69, 17 May 2005, http://www.aip.org/fyi/2005/069.html (accessed 17 September 2009).)
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