Washington, September 09: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) needs an extra $3 billion a year in a bid to conduct meaningful missions, a White House panel has said.
“The committee finds that no plan compatible with the [Financial Year] 2010 budget profile permits human exploration to continue in any meaningful way,” a panel convened by the White House to review human spaceflight plans said on Tuesday.
“The committee further finds that it is possible to conduct a viable exploration program with a budget rising to about $3 billion annually above the FY 2010 budget profile,” it added.
The panel, led by retired aerospace executive Norm Augustine, delivered an executive summary of its report to the Office of Science and Technology Policy on Tuesday. The full report is expected later this month.
NASA’s current annual budget is $18 billion.
—–Agencies