The White House has requested an increase of $276 million over the $18.33 billion fiscal 2010 NASA budget, mainly reflecting an increase of the science budget to about $5 billion and reflecting plans to boost NASA’s role as a research and development agency.
According to the budget request, a major focus of the effort would be to create the 21st Century launch facilities and infrastructure needed at Kennedy Space Center, transforming the facility to more effectively support future NASA, commercial, and other government launches.
The president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers council of locals praised the request, saying, "the increase of the science budget to $5 billion, of the aeronautics R&T budget to $580 million, and of the long-lead strategic space R&T budget to $572 million (along with its transfer to an account independent of the Exploration Systems account) will once again make NASA the uncontested world leader in aerospace scientific discovery and technology development."