Garver Dampens Expectations for NASA Budget Increases

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver reined in expectations that the Obama Administration might significantly increase the NASA budget, according to Space News. Garver spoke at AIAA’s Space 2009 conference in Pasadena on September 16.

The newspaper quoted Ms. Garver as saying that budgets were tight when she previously was at NASA (in the late 1990s) and they are tighter now and that “Our budget has to compete with not only other scientific programs but all government service. To earn our trust from taxpayers we have to help create a better future through programs aligned with both the short-term and long-term national interest.”

Space News also quoted Space Operations Mission Directorate Deputy Administrator David Radzanowski with a similarly pessimistic message: ” I really don’t expect there to be significant increases in NASA’s budgets over the next 10 years…We need to think about what it means to potentially be operating under a flat budget.