President Clinton on America’s Space Program

On the occasion of the launch of Senator John Glenn’s (D-Ohio) space shuttle flight on October 29, President Clinton spoke to CNN interviewer Walter Cronkite about America’s space program. Clinton’s remarks drew immediate criticism from a Member of the House Science Committee.

“Our space program has been a great investment,” Clinton declared in the interview. “It’s had hardly any increase in funding since I became President, but we’ve gone from two launches to eight launches a year. We’ve dramatically cut costs. NASA is sort of the star, the poster child, of Vice President Gore’s reinventing government campaign, and we’re getting a lot out of it.”

Cronkite asked the President: “Now that Russia has this desperate economic situation that endangered [the space station assembly schedule], it looks like we may have to put in a lot of money to try to keep that space station on schedule.... Are we prepared to do that?”

“If it were required, I would be supportive of it,” Clinton responded, “and I would be happy to talk to the Congressional leaders in both parties.... If we were required now to help the Russians during this difficult period - which will not last forever - so that they could continue to participate, I would be in favor of that. I think that it’s very important that we have the Europeans, the Japanese, the Canadians, and the Russians in the space station venture.... I think we’re doing the right thing with this space station, and we need to stay with it.”

Clinton was also asked about the national goal, proclaimed by President Bush, of sending humans to Mars by 2019, the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s Moon landing.

“Well, let me say, what we’re doing now will help us once we get to the position of evaluating that,” Clinton answered. “I don’t want to either affirm or renounce it.... Let’s get the space station up and going and evaluate what our long-term prospects are. I’ll tell you this, I am for a continued, aggressive exploration of space in ways that are high quality, cost effective and that will benefit us here on Earth.”

In response to Clinton’s interview, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) issued a statement the following day, criticizing Clinton’s comments and NASA funding. Rohrabacher, Chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, is a supporter of the space program but a frequent critic of the Clinton Administration. He rebuked Clinton for having “once again misled the American people speaking about his record on the space program.”

“Bill Clinton has cut NASA’s budget in actual dollars every year he’s been President,” Rohrabacher announced, “and slashed the real purchasing power by a third. In fact, this Administration has cut $40 billion from NASA’s outyear budget since he was first elected. Furthermore, there were eight Space Shuttle launches in 1992 - the last year of George Bush’s Presidency - and only four this year. So in fact Bill Clinton has cut human space flight in half.” He accused the Administration of using “NASA as an ideological piggy bank for foreign aid to Russia and for Al Gore’s radical environmental agenda.”

A White House Fact Sheet on “Clinton Administration Space Accomplishments,” released the same day as Rohrabacher’s October 30 statement, shows that Space Science and Earth Science spacecraft launches have increased from two per year in 1992 to eight per year in 1998. The Fact Sheet notes that in 1992, NASA’s FY 1993 budget request was $15 billion, and was expected, at that time, to grow to $21 billion by FY 1998. “NASA was criticized,” it says, “as having a bloated bureaucracy...and pursuing missions that were too ambitious, too expensive, and took too long to develop.” By 1998, it continues, “NASA is regarded as a transformed agency,” with recent annual budgets under $14 billion. Since about 1992, the percentage of the budget dedicated to the sciences and aerospace technology has risen from 33 percent to 42 percent, and science missions are being developed “at one third the cost and in half the time.”

NASA continues to face rough times over the space station, due to Russia’s economic difficulties and concern within Congress. Many Members worry that the cost of keeping the station on schedule will squeeze funding for science missions, and others question the value of the project. Dan Goldin, the head of NASA, in an October 7 hearing issued an ultimatum that Congress and the Administration should fund it properly or consider terminating it (see FYI #146 .) However, support for the station remains strong enough to keep the project moving forward; appropriators recently approved at least the first installment of NASA funds to enable work to continue on essential Russian components.

According to Goldin’s October 7 testimony, the first space station element launch, of the Russian control module Zarya, will take place from Kazakhstan on November 20. The U.S. will launch its node, Unity, from Kennedy Space Center on December 3.