particular significance, the budget provides money to support the selection of Earth science instruments for the polar platform on Space Station.

There are few projects that NASA will undertake over the next few years that are as important as the Earth Observing System, [EOS], which is the instruments that we are going to fly on the polar platform to observe the global Earth and to begin to understand how we as humans are affecting our environment.

The final theme in the budget concerns the research base, which is the foundation of all the programs. It is support for instrument development, theoretical research, graduate student education, sort of the underpinning of our whole program, particularly in the university research community. We have several enhancements in the budget that are of particular interest to this effort.

The budget that we have here says clearly that we are preserving and enhancing U.S. leadership in space. It says in a way that can yield no uncertainty, that we consider that leadership in space is in the national interest, essential for the national future, and that we are not going to let that mantle of leadership pass from us. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you have, Mr. Chairman.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Fisk follows:]

Hold for Release Until
Presented by Witness

STATEMENT OF

DR. LENNARD A. FISK

ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR

SPACE SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

before the

Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications
Committee on Science, Space and Technology
United States House of Representatives

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee:

I am pleased to be here to present the proposed FY 1989 budget for the NASA Space Science and Applications program. This is a year in which the Congress will make decisions on the space program of historical proportion. You will determine whether the nation will go forward with a civilian space program that is second to none, or whether our position of world leadership in space will be allowed to erode. The proposed space science and applications budget supports a balanced and effective program, which will ensure world leadership in key areas of space science and applications, as has been required by the Space Act of 1958, and by every Presidential space policy since, including the one recently announced by President Reagan.

There are five themes in this budget which I would like to describe to you. First, it provides for the completion of the ongoing program in a timely manner. Second, it allows us to move boldly in a key area of space science, to ensure that our world leadership is preserved in the future. Third, it provides for new flight opportunities in the near term for small missions, which are key to the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers. Fourth, the budget allows us to move aggressively, but sensibly, to build science instruments for the Space Station and its platforms. And fifth, the budget makes key augmentations to the Research and Analysis base, which is the foundation to our program. These five themes are important to pursue not only in FY 1989, but also will be essential elements in budgets that I will present to you in subsequent fiscal years. Permit me to describe the FY 1989 budget requests for each on these themes in turn.

The budget includes sufficient resources to keep each of the major flight programs on schedule for launch in its manifested slot on the Shuttle or an ELV. Indeed, the long hiatus in space science launches is about to be over. In 1989, we expect to launch the Cosmic Background Explorer, the Magellan mission to Venus, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Astro Spacelab mission, and the Galileo mission to Jupiter. In August of 1989, we will also have the Voyager encounter with Neptune, for a truly exciting year in space science. Second, our FY 1989 budget request makes a bold statement that the United States will be a world leader in space science. We have requested a new start for the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility-AXAF.

Our Nation is poised for an accomplishment unique in the history of humankind-to observe the physical universe with unprecedented completeness and resolution. We have the demonstrated capability to construct high technology orbiting telescopes that can observe the universe in all forms of electromagnetic radiation, and we have the unique capability with the Shuttle, and eventually the Space Station, to maintain these telescopes on orbit.

The key to realizing this ambition is the start in FY 1989 of AXAF—a telescope facility designed to observe the universe in the x-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. AXAF is 100 times more sensitive and has 1000 times more capability for spectroscopy than any previous or planned x-ray mission. In this era in which United States leadership in space is being challenged, a new start for AXAF will provide a bold statement that in the premiere scientific discipline of astrophysics, we will be second to none.

AXAF is to fly in concert with the Hubble Space Telescope, which will observe the universe in visible and ultraviolet radiation, and with the Gamma Ray Observatory, which will observe in gamma rays. These Great Observatories, operating together, will provide a complete physical picture of the universe's most enigmatic objects and will observe the whole range of phenomena in the universe, from the most tranquil to the most violent.

AXAF will also provide a scientific opportunity that is unlikely to be repeated for many generations. The closest supernova to occur near Earth since the invention of the telescope, 400 years ago, was seen last year and can be studied by AXAF provided that it is launched by 1995, before the x-rays fade. Supernovae are responsible for the origin of all of the heavier elements in the universe, including those essential for life.

The funding request for AXAF is $27 million in FY 1989. The runout cost for the development program is about $1.5 billion spread over seven years. This runout fits, year by year, within a budget for the Office of Space Science and Applications which is constant in real year dollars, in FY 1989 and beyond.

It is important to note that all of the major flight projects in the ongoing program will be launched by 1993. It takes four to six years to develop a flight project. Thus, what we start in FY 1989 will be the next generation of flight projects. We have a hiatus in space science launches today because of the Challenger tragedy. Let us not create another hiatus in the mid-1990's by failing to start major flight projects now.

It is important also to prepare ourselves for the major initiatives of the future. Our FY 1989 budget request supports Advanced Technology Development in Solar System Exploration to prepare the Mariner Mark 2 program to explore the outer solar system, another area of traditional United States leadership which we must maintain. This program will begin with missions to rendezvous with a comet and to probe the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. These missions are currently being studied for launches in the mid-1990's. Further, we will also support the Office of Exploration studies of new agency initiatives, such as a Mars Rover Sample Return mission, as a precursor to human exploration of Mars.

In support of the third theme, our Explorer program will provide near term flight opportunities. There is a clear and present need to stimulate the research community, particularly at universities, with exciting new research opportunities, which will attract new scientists and engineers into space science. Historically, the Explorer program has been one of the means by which we have provided such research opportunities, through frequent launches of focused science missions. Accordingly, we are proposing an Explorer program that allows for more small missions, which can be launched on Scout-class ELV's. Such missions are sufficiently small so that they can be built and launched within three years, yet they are sufficiently capable to accomplish first-class science objectives in astronomy, space physics, and upper atmospheric physics. We anticipate releasing shortly an Announcement of Opportunity to select these missions, and we expect that this opportunity will be welcomed by the science community as yet another indication that the space program is moving forward again.

The fourth theme in our budget proposal concerns Space Station. It is time to begin to develop aggressively the principal areas of space science and applications that will take advantage of the unique opportunities that Space Station will provide us. There are four such areas: microgravity science, life science, attached payloads, and earth science from the Polar Platform. Each area has a separate strategy.

The Space Station will provide us with a laboratory in which, with continual human interaction, we can conduct a broad range of microgravity experiments, in material science, in fluid transport, and in biotechnology. These experiments will advance our knowledge of basic physics, chemistry, and biology, and will have direct applications to improving our understanding of processes which occur on the Earth and in space. To use the Space Station as a laboratory, we need to develop six facilities: (1) a Modular Multizone Furnace Facility, (2) a Modular Combustion Facility, (3) a Fluid Physics/Dynamics Facility, (4) a Modular Containerless Processing Facility, (5) an Advanced Protein Crystal Growth Facility, and (6) a Biotechnology Facility. We further need to fly these facilities in advance of the Space Station, both to test and to perfect the design of the facilities, and to provide new research results in the important field of microgravity science. The budget initiative for microgravity science proposed here provides for the full development of all six facilities required for Space Station, and allows for their test flight on a Spacelab and/or Commercially Developed Space Facility. The program leads to the full instrumentation of Space Station for Microgravity science by the time of Man Tended Capability.

Life sciences research is also an important activity that we will conduct on Space Station. Here, however, we have ongoing studies on precisely how we will accommodate the life science research on Space Station. Accordingly, we are proposing this year to begin development of only one of the facilities that we are certain that we will require on the Station--the 1.8m centrifuge, which is essential to any biological research in space. As with the microgravity facilities, the centrifuge will be flown and tested on a Spacelab and/or Commercially Developed Space Facility, and then transitioned to Space Station. The remaining budget request is for planning funds, which will allow us to complete our studies of the optimum means to accommodate the life science facilities on Space Station. We anticipate a FY 1990 budget initiative to develop these facilities.

The Space Station also provides attached payload opportunities, which can be taken advantage of by a broad range of science and applications disciplines. Accordingly, we are requesting, in the FY 1989 budget, funds for an attached payload initiative. Our strategy here is to begin with attached payloads that are not overly demanding on the environment and pointing capabilities of the Space Station. As we learn to use the Station and its full capabilities, we will evolve into more sophisticated attached payloads.

The Polar Platform of Space Station provides us with the opportunity to make detailed observations of the Earth, how it is evolving on a global scale, and how we as humans are influencing that evolution. In January, we released an Announcement of Opportunity, jointly with the Europeans and the Japanese, to select investigations for the Earth Observing System, or Eos, which is to fly on the Polar Platform. Eos is a candidate new start for FY 1991, and this payload selection is part of our normal process of preparing a mission for new start consideration. Included in our FY 1989 budget request are funds to support the selection and subsequent study of this payload.

The four parts of our Space Station initiative-the development of microgravity facilities, the development of the centrifuge and the planning for other life science facilities, the development of attached payloads, and the selection and study of earth observing instrumentation for the Polar Platform are a comprehensive plan by the space science and applications program to make full use of the unique opportunities that Space Station will provide to us.

The fifth and final theme concerns the Research and Analysis program, which is the vital underpinning to our program - the base support for a vigorous and productive research community. In FY 1989 we propose to continue our rocket and balloon campaign to understand the recent supernova, in advance of when it can be observed and studied by the Great Observatories; to complete the purchase of a new high flying aircraft; and to provide additional resources to take maximum advantage of the upcoming encounter of the Voyager spacecraft with Neptune. We also plan to begin development of a network of signal processing equipment to be attached to radio astronomy facilities to search for intelligent life in our galaxy, and begin the search in 1992. Detection of life elsewhere in the universe may be the most profound event to occur in human history.