As previously noted, a number of people are growing concerned that the new space initiative might not be able to start on schedule because of the perceived difficulty of getting the NASA budget increase the President called for in FY2005. It looks like even officials within NASA think the planned increase is unlikely. The Huntsville Times reported that Steve Isakowitz, the NASA comptroller, told a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council that “domestic needs and wartime spending” might keep NASA from getting more than a modest budget increase in FY05. “It doesn’t look like we are going to get the 5.6 percent increase,” the Times quoted Isakowitz as saying. As one committee member, Huntsville lawyer Mark McDaniel said, NASA is “going to have to sell this better to Congress and the American people.” Given the lack of detailed information NASA has provided Congress to date, which has led some key Congressmen to withhold their support for the plan, the agency may have its work cut out for it.
