Washington, DC Nov. 27, 1997 – On the eve of the American Thanksgiving holiday, the U.S. space agency will have less to be "thankful" for next year, if the Clinton administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has its way, Washington sources tell SpaceCast. OMB has reportedly rejected NASA requests for $13.2 billion in spending approval for FY99, and has slashed the space agency down to $12.6 billion. If the $600 million cut stands, look for major reductions in space science spending and research into reusable X rockets.

Sources familiar with the budget talks within the administration say the

International Space Station and Space Shuttle programs remain unscathed and

are still NASA's top priorities. But the environmental monitoring program

Mission To Planet Earth may see one or more of its platforms delayed. The

MTPE observation spacecraft begin launching in the spring of next year.

Eventually a network of spacecraft will be in earth orbit, dedicated to

monitoring global climate changes and other weather phenomena. But the

earth studies have been targets for attack by Congressional Republicans,

who in theory would not be readily inclined to restore any trimmed funding.

Even more controversial would be cuts to the X rocket research projects,

the X-33 and X-34. Sources at NASA headquarters in Washington say that of

the two projects, the X-33 is NASA's priority. A second group of 25 test

flights of the X-34 hoped for in the FY99 budget most likely will be cut.

Funding for the advanced space transportation program Future X will likely

be delayed again for another year.

Analysts say that the cuts would put even more pressure on NASA chief

Daniel Goldin to approve proposals to fully commercialize the Space Shuttle

fleet. Such a move could save the agency hundreds of millions in Shuttle

operating costs, freeing up such funds for the programs now at risk for

cuts. But critics warn that a commercial Shuttle would be a risky

proposition, due to the large cuts in manpower that would be needed to

bring operating costs lower and thus make the 17-year old Shuttles

profitable.

SpaceCast has learned from outgoing NASA Space Flight chief Will Trafton

that a fully-formed Shuttle commercialization proposal has been drafted by

Trafton's department and is now in review. The plan, details of which were

not released, would allow a phased change of the Space Shuttle program into

a totally commercial operation conducted by the USA consortium. Under the

change, there would be no restrictions on the types of cargoes the Shuttles

could carry. The fleet of four winged craft would offer astronaut-tended

space platform operations and other commercial space business services by

the year 2001, including launch and return of satellites and small

laboratories.