DRYDEN ESCAPES BIG CUTS NASA FLIES $16.2 BILLION BUDGET PROPOSAL.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - NASA's proposed 2005 budget shifts $1 billion away from existing programs to finance the start of the president's moon initiative, but leaves aeronautics - Dryden Flight Research Center's mainstay - essentially untouched.

NASA unveiled a $16.2 billion budget proposal aimed at meeting the president's goals of returning the space shuttle to flight, completing the International Space Station by 2010, and returning to the moon no later than 2020. The proposed budget is up 5.6 percent from this year's budget and includes redirecting $1 billion to the president's goals.

``If you look at the dollars we have for aeronautics, there is essentially no change in what we had planned,'' Steve Isakowitz, NASA's comptroller, said from Washington, D.C., in a teleconference with reporters. ``The aeronautics program was left intact.''

While NASA plans to cancel or defer programs in other areas of its budget to finance the start of the moon initiative, aeronautics funding will remain relatively stable over the next five years, officials say.

Funding for aeronautics is planned at $919 million for 2005, and funding from 2006 and 2009 will range from $926 million to $957 million each year.

In an initial look at the budget, it appears Dryden's budget will also remain stable. The center, which has about 1,100 NASA and contractor employees, has a budget of about $180 million.

The center's budget might dip slightly as work is expected to be completed this year on flight tests of two X-43A experimental aircraft, said Bob Meyer, Dryden's acting deputy director.

Meyer said he is guardedly optimistic that the moon initiative will result in additional work at Dryden. Meyer noted previous manned space projects generated work at Dryden, including developing a training vehicle for the lunar lander for the Apollo program and using the center's B-52 for testing drag chutes for the space shuttle.

``I expect there will be opportunities with space exploration to take on new work,'' Meyer said. ``We're going to have to earn our way onto these programs. We have to market our capabilities.''

Over the next five years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to invest $12 billion in meeting the space exploration goals of the Bush administration. Of that total, $11 billion is to be met through redirecting existing funding.

Over half of that funding will come from discontinuing the Space Launch Initiative, which included the now canceled orbital space plane program and the Next Generation Launch Technology program, which was aimed at developing technologies for future spacecraft.

Other funding is expected to come from the space shuttles, as they head to a planned retirement in 2010; from the deferral of proposed Earth science projects; and from reducing research programs on the International Space Station.

``This budget for the 2005 fiscal year reflects the president's vision, which is to advance U.S. scientific, security and economic interests through a robust space exploration program,'' NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said in a statement accompanying the release of the agency's budget. ``This exploration vision is affordable, fiscally responsible, and sustainable.''

NASA plans to seek budget increases of 4.7 percent in 2006 and 4.8 percent in 2007, and a 1 percent increase in 2008 to help fund the effort.

``Although the budget increases are modest, NASA will be able to carry out a robust exploration program,'' O'Keefe's statement said. ``During the next decade, retiring the space shuttle will free over $4 billion annually, enabling full-scale development and operation of robotic and human moon missions.''

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com