search objectives no longer require the Centrifuge Accommodation Module that is being developed for NASA by JAXA under a barter arrangement.

This proposed approach would accommodate almost all of the International Partner elements currently planned for launch to the ISS, with the notable exception of the Russian Solar Power Module. NASA is prepared to immediately engage in detailed bilateral discussions to establish mutually beneficial arrangements to accommodate the proposed change.

NASA senior officials have been meeting with our key International Partners to discuss this approach, and the Partners have agreed to conduct a series of multilateral discussions to receive and assess the full details of NASA's proposed plan and the Partners' priorities in preparation for an anticipated Space Station Heads of Agency meeting in the January 2006 timeframe.

Recently, the Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB) convened to discuss the proposed configuration and assembly sequence and tasked the Space Station Control Board (SSCB) to assess the technical aspects of this new approach. The MCB is the senior ISS management forum responsible for oversight of all ISS development, operations and utilization activities, with high-level representation from NASA, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Following these detailed discussions, the partnership will be ready to meet at the Heads of Agency level. Aeronautics Research

Dr. Lisa Porter was recently selected as Associate Administrator to lead NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. In that role she has begun the process of reshaping NASA's Aeronautics research program allowing the Agency to take responsibility for the intellectual stewardship of the core competencies of Aeronautics for the Nation. This will require us to reinvest in the Agency's in-house expertise to ensure that we retain the world-class skills, knowledge, and facilities needed to guarantee our nation's ability to consistently contribute world-class innovation to aeronautical challenges, both civilian and military.

The reshaped aeronautics program will strengthen our partnerships with the Department of Defense (DOD) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), capitalizing on each agency's unique capabilities and resources to strengthen the Nation's leadership in aeronautics. Our partnership with DOD will include close collaboration to establish an integrated national strategy for management of the Nation's most vital wind tunnels. As a result, NASA and DOD will work cooperatively to consider the impact of any decisions regarding the management of each agency's respective wind tunnel facilities. We will forge new partnerships and continue to benefit from partnerships built in the past with academia and industry. Industry will be able to rely on us to invest in the "seed corn" that is the critical ingredient in revolutionary technological advancement.

As a first step, NASA is reshaping the three major programs within the Aeronautics Mission Directorate. The previous Vehicle Systems Program is being renamed the Fundamental Aeronautics Program in order to reflect properly its new focus on fundamental aeronautical sciences. Within Fundamental Aeronautics, and consistent with direction we received from the Congress, we will re-establish the Agency's dedication to the mastery of core competencies in subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flight. We will create projects that provide continual, long-term investment in the fundamentals and that build upon that investment to develop systemlevel, multi-disciplinary capabilities that will enable both the civilian and military communities to build platforms that meet their specific needs. As part of our investment in fundamental aeronautics, we are positioning the program to continue important long-term research activity in FY 2006 that preserves the core competencies in rotorcraft and hypersonics, drawing upon NASA's critical in-house expertise. We are transforming the Aviation Safety and Security Program into the Aviation Safety Program, where we will focus research on safety areas that are appropriate to NASA's unique capabilities. Projects in Aviation Safety will address integrated vehicle health management, resilient aircraft control, intelligent flight deck technologies, and aging aircraft. The Airspace Systems Program is being realigned to directly address the air traffic management needs of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS) as defined by the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), pursuant to Public Law 108-76.

Leading scientists and engineers from the NASA field centers participated in workshops in September and October to lay the foundation for a technical plan to reshape the Aeronautics Research program. As the year progresses, this technical plan will be guided by the National Aeronautics Policy that is being developed by Office of Science and Technology Policy and NASA in collaboration with other agency partners. (Dr. Porter is co-chair of the National Science and Technology Council's

Aeronautics Science and Technology Subcommittee.) In addition, the National Research Council is currently conducting a decadal survey for aeronautics, which will also provide inputs to our plan.

Maintaining a Robust Science Portfolio

As NASA moves forward to implement the Vision for Space Exploration, science will remain a major element of NASA's overall portfolio. During the past year, the science program has yielded many exciting results. The Cassini spacecraft has had close encounters with a number of Saturn's diverse moons and returned many exciting results, including images of the mysteriously sponge-like cratered moon Hyperion. Coordinated observations of celestial gamma ray bursts by four NASA spacecraft and ground-based observatories showed that these brief bursts of radiation, among the most powerful explosions known, are emitted when a black hole swallows a neutron star. Solar physicists used data from European and NASA space observatories to improve our understanding of the role of electric currents in solar flares, which can disable satellites and will pose a threat to future astronauts. The Deep Impact spacecraft successfully collided with Comet Tempel 1 causing a massive explosion on the comet's surface. The debris released by the force of this impact will be used by scientists to study the formation of the solar system and the structure and composition of comets. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was successfully launched and is on its way toward a March 2006 arrival. On a more urgent note, NASA teamed with other federal agencies and used its aircraft and satellite remote sensing systems to track Hurricane Katrina's winds and then to evaluate the damage and flooding caused by the storm. The Hubble Space Telescope was used to search for oxygen-rich minerals on the Moon that might be useful for long-term human presence there. Our science program will continue to be a major emphasis of the Agency, and we look forward to comparable future results from the science portfolio.

To continue this agenda of discovery, the science budget outlook promises a healthy and vigorous program. The FY 2006 President's budget showed a slight decrease of less than one percent in the budget for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, relative to the FY 2005 budget, but this was attributable to adjustments to support reducing the federal deficit and other National priorities. NASA's science budget was not cut to serve the needs of the human exploration program.

Within the science program, NASA seeks to maintain a robust portfolio of investment over time across the several disciplines in the Earth and space sciences. Beginning with the baseline of existing programs and recent strategic planning, we set future directions by factoring in recent scientific progress, Presidential initiatives, and science community advice. Beyond these broad considerations, choices between programs in a discipline can be driven by technology readiness and partnership opportunities that can leverage NASA's investment.

As we continue to expand the frontier of scientific knowledge of the universe, however, we recognize that NASA cannot afford to take advantage of all deserving opportunities. In making choices within these constraints, we recognize the need to change the emphasis of the science portfolio. For example, it had been planned to allocate, in FY 2006, a very substantial increase in funding to robotic Mars exploration in future years. We have revisited these plans, and are adjusting our portfolio to increase emphasis on Earth and solar science as an important component of the science program. The value of Earth science and applications from space has been highlighted during the recent hurricanes and their aftermath. Some of the re-allocated resources are also targeted for urgent needs in the NASA astronomy program. These budget adjustments are internal to the science program and will not affect NASA's proposed spending on exploration or aeronautics.

In defining and executing specific science program activities, the prime consideration remains excellence. NASA will continue to look to the National Academies for advice on scientific priorities, using, for example, discipline decadal surveys. These are now available in all of the areas of space science and a corresponding major Academy study is currently underway for Earth science. We expect the latter to be completed in fall of 2006. NASA will also continue the practice of selecting investigations via merit-based peer review of competitive proposals received in response to open solicitations, and investigators at the NASA Centers will continue to be able to compete against other investigators for support for their own research programs. Looking beyond the science program itself, we believe that the Science Mission Directorate will play an important role in implementing the Vision. This exploration program is not premised on or justified exclusively by science, but we expect enhanced opportunities for scientific investigation to be a significant aspect of it. As a result, we are working to establish the right interfaces and linkages between pro

gram planning in the Science Mission Directorate and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

NASA Workforce

Although the overall NASA budget has increased in recent years, the NASA workforce has been impacted by significant budget reductions in our aeronautics programs, cancellation of programs, and investment changes to the research and technology portfolio of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. We have taken specific actions to try to alleviate this problem. For example, starting in November 2004, NASA implemented employee buyouts to rebalance the workforce and in January 2005 established hiring guidelines to emphasize filling vacancies from within the Agency. We are also making significant changes that will help ensure that NASA's Centers have a productive future. Contractors will continue to play a key role, but we need to ensure that the Federal Government maintains the in-house intellectual core capacity to sustain NASA's exploration, science and aeronautics missions. Our goal is to ensure that NASA Centers are productive contributors to the Agency's agenda and that we have the people and tools necessary to accomplish the long-term goals of space exploration. With that in mind, we will be making changes at Headquarters as well.

In September, NASA initiated an Institutional Requirements Review (IRR) the scope of which includes corporate G&A, corporate service pools, and all Headquarters-based operations. Our goals are to keep corporately funded requirements within overall corporate budget guidelines, reduce the total workforce at Headquarters commensurate with its appropriate role and overall size of the Agency, and consolidate required personnel at the Headquarters building. We aim to (1) gain operational efficiencies; (2) align ourselves to a management model that has Headquarters in charge of architecture, strategy, policy, compliance, and general management with field Centers executing programs and projects; and (3) set an example for the rest of the Agency of the willingness of Headquarters to make hard decisions that benefit NASA in the long run.

Assuming we can achieve additional buyouts in the next few months, NASA has approximately 950 civil servants in the field that are not currently assigned to NASA programs in FY 2006. We will continue to address this problem and structure the workforce to ensure the success of the exploration vision, as well as NASA's other missions in science, aeronautics, education, space operations and exploration. However, changes to our skill mix and, therefore, the workforce will be required. The NASA Office of Human Capital continues to work with center management on the workforce strategies. We will continue to identify center work assignments based on our strategic planning for the exploration systems. We are in the planning stages of offering a final buyout program to employees.

If we are unable to cover all of the NASA civil service positions, NASA is planning to conduct a Reduction in Force (RIF). Our Office of Human Capital is working with human resource offices at the centers to ensure readiness for a RIF, should it become necessary. However, a RIF is a last resort, and we will exhaust all other reasonable possibilities before undertaking such an action.

With changes to NASA's mission it is important that we manage our workforce issues to ensure that we have the right skill mix to successfully execute the vision for space exploration and maintain the important work in other areas such as our aeronautics, space operations and science portfolios. We will have an integrated, Agency-wide approach to human capital management.

NASA Authorization Bill for 2005

The House and Senate have passed two differing versions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2005 (H.R. 3070 and S. 1281), and we understand that conferees may meet soon to resolve the differences between the two versions. We will soon be sending the Committee a letter outlining NASA's views with respect to the bills for Members' consideration during this conference.

NASA applauds both bills' endorsement of the Vision for Space Exploration, and the incorporation of a number of the legislative provisions the Administration included in the proposed NASA authorization bill submitted to Congress. Both bills provide many of the policies and tools necessary to achieve the fundamental goal of the Vision, i.e., the advancement of U.S. scientific, security, and economic interests through a robust space exploration program. While we find much to support in both bills, we continue to have serious concerns regarding several provisions in each bill that need to be satisfactorily addressed prior to final enactment of reauthorization legislation, and look forward to working with the Committee to resolve these issues.

Conclusion

horizons. Members of the Committee, I would be pleased to respond to any questions. that will increase our opportunities to advance scientific knowledge and expand our by the Vision for Space Exploration, we are setting the stage for a space program time. I am convinced that in the ways we are attacking the challenges presented Once again, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Mr. Chairman, and reaching our exploration objectives-one mission, one voyage, and one landing at a In the months ahead, I am confident that we will achieve steady progress in

DISCUSSION

CEV ACCELERATION

Chairman BOEHLERT. Thank you very much, Mr. Administrator. Well, the challenges that have-you know, I am reminded of, you know, the Academy Award winning actor who uttered the famous lines: "Show me the money." I think if all of us who expect you to put-pull the rabbit out of the hat and we are able to give you a path to the money you wanted, I am confident you could use it wisely and accomplish everything we want, but I don't know where the hat is, let alone the rabbit. And I do know the money is a challenge.

So I ask you this. What are the consequences if we start down a path to accelerate CEV and then find out that we don't have the money in fiscal year 2008 to remain on that path? Are we worse off than if we just set 2014 as the date today? And parenthetically, just let me say, I think CEV acceleration would be great, but only if it doesn't eat into other vital programs that I also think are very great.

Dr. GRIFFIN. Clearly, the best thing to do for any program is to pick a date that is achievable and to provide the funding as it is required in the different phases of the program consistent with the overall ceiling that is provided. We believe we have budgeted adequately for the CEV. We believe that if the President's budget is approved, that it can be delivered in 2012. We believe that if it is delayed further, we risk losing critical competencies between the end of Shuttle retirement and the onset of operations of the CEV. We also risk taking America out of manned space flight for four critical years following the completion of Station assembly at a period of time when the programs of other nations are in their ascendancy.

I believe this to be strategically the wrong thing to do, and so I have stated that replacing the Shuttle with an equivalent capability through the use of the CEV as soon as possible after Shuttle retirement is our real highest priority. And if other adjustments need to be made to respect that priority, I would respectfully recommend that those adjustments be made.

Chairman BOEHLERT. We don't now have the money in the projections ahead to pay for Shuttle's CEV acceleration, so what happens if we get started on CEV and have to slow it down? What are the consequences of that?

Dr. GRIFFIN. If we start on CEV at a certain pace and then have to slow it down, we will become less efficient in that program and will-absolutely will cause it to overrun.

Chairman BOEHLERT. So get back to the basic question. If—are we being too ambitious right now in setting the 2012 date, given the circumstances that exist that I think we all agree are there? Dr. GRIFFIN. Sir, I think that our plan is sound. I think our plan for CEV development includes adequate cost reserves against unknowns. We are working to understand and contain Shuttle costs, and we propose maintaining a robust program of space science while we complete this CEV. All plans have uncertainty. Chairman BOEHLERT. Well, I understand that, but