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NASA's chief has warned space enthusiasts that the agency will become a financial target to outsiders when the US President sends his proposed budget to Congress on 7 February.

NASA is expected to see an increase in its budget to fund a programme of human exploration of the Moon and Mars. But most other non-defence government agencies and departments should see cuts. So the outgoing NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, anticipates fights on all fronts for the space agency's proposed funds.

"I expect this year to be just as hard, if not harder," agreed US congressman Dave Weldon, who sits on the subcommittee overseeing NASA funding. Both men were speaking at the 1st Space Exploration conference in Orlando, Florida, US, on Monday.

NASA's anticipated budget increase is largely due to the plans to return to the Moon. President George W Bush outlined the Vision for Space Exploration programme in 2004. It aims to fly humans back to the Moon by 2020 and prepare them for future journeys to Mars.

The programme outlined the future increases to NASA's budget needed to accomplish this feat. NASA requested and received $16.2 billion for Fiscal Year 2005 (1 October 2004 to 30 September 2005), a 5.6% increase on the previous year. The exploration plan anticipates a budget of $17.0 billion for FY2006 - a 4.7% increase.

Of that total, the Moon-Mars programme - named Project Constellation - is anticipated to receive $6.6 billion over five years, beginning in FY2005.
Key challenge

O'Keefe will leave NASA soon after the proposed budget is released, though President Bush is yet to nominate his replacement. A key challenge for any incoming administrator will be to maintain funding for the space program over the long term, says Weldon.

"In the next two or three decades, we will be trying to pull this off in a very, very difficult climate," says Weldon, who represents a district encompassing Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. He says that in 2008, for example, the "baby-boomer bow wave of social security demand is going to begin".

Also at the conference on Monday, Lockheed Martin announced its team of partner companies to compete for the contract to build the Crew Exploration Vehicle - the successor to the space shuttle.

The group will include United Space Alliance, Honeywell, Orbital Sciences, Hamilton Sunstrand and EADS Space Transportation. Boeing and Northrop Grumman have already agreed to work together on a separate CEV proposal.