Aerospace companies wait for word about stimulus money - Triangle Business Journal:

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In February, Congress approved more than $1 billion in Americanj Recovery and ReinvestmentAct (ARRA) funds for space projects. Whethe r or when local aerospace contractors will see any of the monet indirectly depends on budgeting for fiscal year which is being hashed out nowin Washington, D.C. Boulder-basee is in a typical situation. Preliminary stimulusw plans at NASA andthe (NOAA) show moneyy coming to two projects for whichg Ball Aerospace is a contractor. Yet, nearlg four months after ARRA’s passage, the companyu doesn’t know whether it will have a shot at any ofthe “We may.
We aren’yt sure, and it’s hard to know at this point,” said Roz Ball Aerospace spokeswoman. NASA and other federal agencies withspacs projects, such as NOAA, plan to funnel much of their stimulus funds into long-standing missions. NASA expects to make about half its stimuluas grants throughcompetitive bidding, with the rest headefd either to its internal projects or to companieds with existing contracts. The agencyg can’t announce stimulus allocations yetbecause they’re tied to its 2010 budgeg that Congress is considering, said Stephanie a NASA spokeswoman.
“Becauses we have the stimulus money, we’re anticipating beintg able to spend it this year to preserve some moneh we would otherwise spend in the2010 budget,” she Congressional subcommittees have proposed reducing the Obamsa administration’s requested funding for manned space exploratioj in NASA’s 2010 budget, which may prompt NASA to rethinkm parts of its stimulu s plan. Outside its 2010 NASA currently plans tospends $400 million in stimulus money for its Constellation program, whic is building a rocket and crew capsule to replace the space shuttle and serve the International Space Station. Littleton-based is leadinf the $8.
2 billion development of the Orioncapsule that’zs at the heart of the Constellation program. NASA has plannedd to spend some stimulus money to test Orion onthe ground, but Lockheed Martin will have to wait untiol NASA’s budget is resolved to discover how much Orion gets and whethert it will have to bid to get it. The federak stimulus for space-related work is relatively smalpl for a field in whicjh projects cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. But the money still could be key.
Demaned for private and government satellites and rocket launches hassloweds — the Department of Defense just canceller plans for a multibillion-dollar satellite network known as TSAT and any government funding increase is welcomed. The stimuluds won’t come close to fixingg chronic underfundingof NASA, said Janet spokeswoman for the , a Colorado Springs-based aerospacd industry group. “It’s a good step, but it’s not enoughj — not enough to make the kind ofdifference that’d needed at NASA,” she said. Still, it’ss money that gets spent domestically and will supporgtskilled jobs, Stevens said.
Whatever benefit contractors on existing projects gainfrom NASA’s stimulus spending is likely to be said Professor Henry a researcher with the at Georgw Washington University in Washington, D.C. “Unleszs companies can generate additional business as a resultr ofthe stimulus, these additions will evaporate,” he NASA has proposed putting $75 million of ARRA fundzs toward the James Webb Space an orbiting infrared observatory that’s schedulefd to launch in 2014. is the lead with Ball Aerospace overseeing constructio n ofthe telescope’s massivd mirrors.