Lawmakers rebuff plan to kill lunar robot

The lawmakers also expressed concern about the long-planned Space Interferometry Mission being reduced to a technology-development effort, but did not call for any restoration of funds. The letter also urged NASA to provide stable funding for its Independent Verification and Validation Facility in Fairmont, W.Va.

The lawmakers are silent on the rest of NASA’s operating plan, which also quantifies the extra funding NASA must spend this year to maintain the launch schedules of major programs including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Mars Science Laboratory.

Keeping James Webb on track to launch in 2013 will cost $478.5 million this year, $9.9 million more than NASA previously anticipated, according to the documents.

Maintaining the Mars Science Laboratory’s 2009 launch date will cost an extra $62.7 million this year, pushing the mission’s total price tag, including launch and several years of operations, to $1.75 billion.

NASA expects to spend $141.7 million completing the Gamma Ray Large Area Telescope this year, $16.6 million more than it was banking on due problems with the observatory’s avionics and main instrument. Total price tag for the mission, due to launch this November, is now $871.7 million.

The Kepler planet-hunting telescope also is costing more than expected.

Delaying the launch of the planet-hunting mission to November 2008 will require an additional $36.7 million for 2007 and increase the total cost of the project to $649.3 million, according to the operating plan.

Launch vehicle-related concerns that pushed last year’s scheduled launch of the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms mission by four months—into 2007—added $3.9 million to the cost of the five-satellite project.

A NASA official said the agency would not comment on specifics of the operating plan since it was still before Congress for review.

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