Aeronautics Budget Troubles NASA’s Langley, Va., Research Center
NASA — NASA Langley Research Center may get a modest budget increase next fiscal year, which begins in October. But that hasn’t stopped Langley supporters from worrying about less aeronautics funding and more reliance on contracted work.
If Congress keeps President Bush’s current funding plan intact, the budget for running the center would increase 4 percent, from $396 million to $411 million. That doesn’t include the millions of dollars Langley spends on research programs each year.
NASA used to include program money in its 10 field centers’ individual budgets, said Del Freeman, acting director of NASA Langley. Now, each center receives money for operations, but program money is managed out of headquarters.
“It was misleading in the past,” Freeman said. “Although the money came to the center, it went out to the programs and wasn’t necessarily spent here.”
Roy Harris, chief technical officer for a group of volunteer lobbyists called the NASA Aeronautics Support Team, or NAST, said the new budget procedure means Langley has less control over keeping program money close to home.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and John McCain, R-Ariz., recently urged Congress to take a look at cutting the budgets of NASA’s field centers. That might be easier now that each center has a more succinct budget.
“I’d put all of it on the table the question of where the centers are and how to make the dollars stretch,” Wyden was quoted as saying.
NASA is conducting a review of all its facilities, including its 10 field centers, to determine whether any changes should be made. The review is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
“We’re looking at the strategic direction of the agency and what capacity we need,” NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said Tuesday. “I don’t want to preordain or prejudge that outcome until we see what the facts and the evidence are.”
But the chairman of a House appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over NASA said he saw no need to review the value of NASA field centers such as Langley.
“By and large, they seem to be fulfilling their missions,” said Rep. James T. Walsh, R-N.Y., the subcommittee chairman.
Freeman, who is actively involved in the agency’s funding process, said the budget changes were simply for the purpose of better money management.
“Having the ability to understand the costs is helpful,” he said.
Many NASA programs, such as the space shuttle and Mars exploration, are shared across several field centers.
The program Langley is most interested in, aeronautics technology, is slated to increase slightly to $959 million agency-wide next fiscal year. Funding would increase by several million dollars for Langley research in quiet aircraft, aviation security and air traffic management, Freeman said.
But future years are less rosy.
NASA spending on aeronautics is projected to slump to $916 million by Fiscal Year 2008. That is only an estimate, Freeman stressed. But fuzzy forecasts cause some to worry.
The uncertain budget climate includes the unknown cost of the Columbia investigation and the decision on whether to build a new shuttle or funnel more research into next-generation spacecraft, said NAST’s Harris.
“If there’s any real message in this, the message is that right now is a time of change for NASA,” Harris says.
European countries are spending money on research for cutting-edge military aircraft while the United States is flying warplanes over Iraq that have 20-year-old technology, said Anna McNider, NAST president.
“NASA has treated aeronautics as its stepchild,” she said. “We’re simply not doing the research that would enable us to build newer, better planes or space shuttles in the future.”
NAST is pushing legislation to double NASA’s investment in aeronautics.
At least one of Langley’s top contractors is more optimistic about future funding.
“Almost every fiscal year we go through this same scenario,” said Paul Barnhart, program manager for Swales Aerospace, which has a $250 million engineering support contract with Langley. “It rarely ends up being that bad.”
Swales has 130 employees and 120 subcontractors working at Langley.
Many of Langley’s 2,365 employees are carefully watching NASA’s push toward using more contracted help. Contractors tend to view their role as providing flexible support to civil service researchers, while groups like NAST say contractors are less flexible and actually cost more money.
Freeman said the trend toward more contracting could come into play with Langley’s metal fabrication work. About 60 Langley employees make metal test models for the wind tunnels and research hardware for aerospace projects.
Another contract is called ROME, which stands for Research Operations Maintenance and Engineering. ROME consolidates several smaller contracts associated with operating the center everything from engineering support to security guards.
“That activity is primarily contracted now,” Freeman said. What about civil service employees whose work might be taken over by contractors?
“Those folks will be given other jobs at the center,” Freeman said. He anticipates no layoffs. Langley has streamlined its civil service staff from 2,884 in 1990 to 2,365 today through attrition, with no layoffs during that period.
Barnhart said Langley’s civil servants shouldn’t worry about losing their jobs.
“The civil service workforce has been pretty stable here a long time,” Barnhart said. “I believe there could be a reduction in the future, but I think it will done through natural retirements.”
Yet another area of disagreement within Langley is NASA’s decision to close the 16-foot Transonic Tunnel. There is significant pride and demand for the tunnel, which has tested all the country’s fighter planes since the 1960s.
But Freeman said future research will require a tunnel with more advanced technology, such as the National Transonic Facility, which is also at Langley. The 16-foot tunnel is scheduled to close in September 2004, with no new work orders accepted after this September.
“However, it is difficult to predict wind-tunnel demand,” Freeman said. “New requirements, especially for national defense, will have to be considered on a case-by-case basis.”
Daily Press staff writer David Lerman contributed to this report.
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