2006年VOA标准英语-NASA Struggles with Budget Issues as It De

By David McAlary
Washington
05 June 2006

As the United States prepares to return humans to the moon by 2020, the space agency NASA is busy figuring out what to do once they are there. U.S. space officials have had to juggle¹ priorities to meet the goal while still operating space shuttles and a space station.

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Scott Horowitz
  
  

Last year, NASA revealed its concepts for the rocketships that will carry people and cargo² to the moon late in the next decade. This year's activities build on that, according to the agency official in charge of the moon exploration program, former astronaut Scott Horowitz.

"Last year we did the exploration systems architecture study - basically the 'how are we going to get there'," asked Scott Horowitz. "What we are looking at this year - this is the year of what do we do when we get there?"

The answers will determine what kind of landers the U.S. designs and where they will go. Horowitz says NASA has just begun reaching to industry and scientists for ideas. In contrast, it is much farther ahead on the spaceship that will bring humans to the moon. It plans to choose its prime contractor³ for that part of the project by August or September.

The program is the result of a new space policy President Bush announced in 2004 to return humans to the moon by 2020 as the first step in an exploration program that would eventually land crews on Mars.
 

International Space Station
  
  
NASA officials have been reorganizing the agency to meet the deadline while continuing to build the International Space Station and operate the space shuttle until 2010. It is like a two front war, and to make things harder, they must work without budget increases for the additional program. Scott Horowitz calls the effort a grand challenge.

"This is different," he said. "For the last 20 or 30 years in human space flight, NASA has been in the operating mode. We have not developed a new spacecraft to lift humans off the planet in over 30 years. Its a big deal and it's a big challenge and we can't keep doing it the way we are doing it with shuttle and station. If we want to continue all the development, which is the launch vehicles and the lander and the robotic precursor⁴ missions, we need to do development at the same time we do operations. We are going to have to ask our people to do different things than they do today."
 

Michael Griffin
  
  
NASA's boss, Michael Griffin, had hoped to have the new crew vehicle, the successor to the space shuttle, ready by 2012, since it could also be used to visit the space station or for space telescope repair as well as moon missions. But budget problems have caused him to push that back two years.

"With regard to overall deployment⁵ dates and test dates, of course, they are financially driven," said Michael Griffin.

Griffin shifted more than $1.5 billion from crew vehicle development to help make up part of a $4-billion shuttle and space station budget shortfall he discovered last year not long after becoming NASA's administrator⁶.

"That funding hit imposed delays at least on the nominal⁷ deployment dates that we don't like but that we have to live with," he said.

The money issue is also pressing on the schedule for getting people on the moon. Whereas the original intent was to have an astronaut back on the lunar surface between 2015 and 2020, the goal is now to meet the end of the five year window, although Griffin says he will work hard to advance that.

He also says NASA will try to have the new crew vehicle ready before 2014 to shorten the gap between its first deployment and the last shuttle flight in 2010. The NASA chief does not want the United States to be out of human space flight too long.

"It's a strategic element of what makes the United States a great power and we will not abandon it," said NASA's chief.

1 juggle   

v.变戏法，纂改，欺骗，同时做；n.玩杂耍，纂改，花招

参考例句：

• If you juggle with your accounts,you'll get into trouble.你要是在帐目上做手脚，你可要遇到麻烦了。
• She had to juggle her job and her children.她得同时兼顾工作和孩子。

2 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

3 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

4 precursor   

n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆

参考例句：

• Error is often the precursor of what is correct.错误常常是正确的先导。
• He said that the deal should not be seen as a precursor to a merger.他说该笔交易不应该被看作是合并的前兆。

5 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

6 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

7 nominal   

adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的

参考例句：

• The king was only the nominal head of the state. 国王只是这个国家名义上的元首。
• The charge of the box lunch was nominal.午餐盒饭收费很少。