Senate Budget Panel: Shuttle Can Fly Another Year

Press Release

Senate Budget Panel: Shuttle Can Fly Another Year

A $2.5 billion spending provision that would allow NASA to fly the space shuttle well beyond its scheduled retirement next year cleared a major legislative hurdle today, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

The provision, requested by Nelson, was included in the broader five-year spending plan that passed the Senate Budget Committee today about 5 p.m.

The shuttle is scheduled to be retired in the fall of next year, and President Barack Obama's recently submitted budget plan provides only enough money for nine flights 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 Nelson won Thursday in the Senate's version of 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.

The Budget Committee's decision sends a strong signal that the shuttle shouldn't be retired on a date-certain, but only when all the missions are completed," Nelson said immediately after the Thursday vote. "It's in there."

The committee's decision also could shorten the amount of time the U.S. has found it will need to rely solely on the Russians for human access to space. NASA doesn't plan on having the shuttle's replacement ready to fly until 2015, which meant nearly a five-year gap from the shuttle's retirement. Flying the shuttle through 2011 would close that gap by at least a 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 last month, 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.

Before the Senate's budget panel's amended version becomes official, it must pass the full Senate, and then be reconciled by negotiators with the House's version of the spending plan.

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