Volume 2, No. 17                October 13, 1998

The FY 1999 VA-HUD-IA Appropriations Bill provides $13.665 billion for NASA -- $200 million more than requested by the Administration. The final amount is $337 above the House bill and $50 million more than recommended by the Senate.

The budget for Human Space Flight is $5.48 billion, down from $5.68 billion in FY 1998. The President requested $5.51 billion. The space station will receive $2.27 billion and the Payload and Utilization budget is $182 million -- in both cases the amount requested by the President. The space shuttle budget totals $3.028 billion, slightly below the President's request of $3.059 billion and slightly above the FY 1998 budget of $2.923 billion.

The Science, Aeronautics, and Technology account is set at $5.654 billion -- $196.5 million above the President's request and about $100 million more in spending than FY 1998. The Space Science budget is boosted by $60.8 million. At the same time, the bill earmarks $103 million for various programs, including an increase of $20 million for the Mars 2001 program, $12 million more for the Next Generation Space Telescope, $10 million more for Solar Space Power, and $1 million more for the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program.

The Life and Microgravity Sciences budget is $263.5 million -- $21.5 above the President's request. Of this amount, $15 million is set aside for a FY 1999 shuttle mission that "accommodates research payloads," and $6.5 million is for space radiation research.

The Earth Sciences budget was increased by $41.8 million. In this account, Congress earmarked $53 million to assorted programs. The Aeronautics and Space Transportation budget is $1.339 billion -- about $34 million above the President's request and about $132 million less than the FY 1998 budget. Congress directed $47.5 million in spending to specific programs, including an additional: $6 million to study liquid flyback booster systems, $20 million for NASA's participation in the Air Force Military Space Plane, and, $6 million for hybrid propulsion. Funding for Academic Programs was boosted by $38.5 million to $138.5 million. The bill also:

• Changes NASA's Lewis Research Center to the John Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field;
• Restricts the use of non-space station funds for space station related activities;
• Directs NASA to submit a separate account for the international space station in its FY 2000 budget proposal;
• Removes the House language that prohibited the use of FY 1999 funds for the Triana mission, also known as Goresat;
• Includes language to provide indemnification and cross-waivers of liability with regard to the X-33 and X-34 programs;

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