Analysis of NASA's Fiscal Year 1983 Budget Request for Research and Development To Determine the Amount That Supports DOD's Programs

GAO was asked to review the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) fiscal year 1983 budget request to identify those programs that support the Department of Defense (DOD).

The allocation that NASA gave to GAO showed that less than 0.1 percent of its budget was for DOD support. Based on the NASA information and the results of the review, GAO prepared an allocation of the budget which reflects changes that GAO felt were appropriate to the NASA data. NASA requested approximately $3,468 million for the Space Transportation System. GAO allocated $1,088 million of this to DOD and $2,380 million to civil programs. NASA officials said that neither their accounting system nor their system for estimating shuttle operations costs provide for a breakout of DOD-related costs. GAO supported the allocation of $286 million for civil programs. GAO disagreed with the allocation of $3,182 million to support civil and DOD programs and allocated these costs based on their planned use of the space shuttle. NASA requested $1,002 million for space science and applications. GAO allocated $55.7 million for life science as supporting both civil and DOD programs. NASA has allocated the entire amount to civil support. GAO agrees with the $355 million requested for aeronautics and space technology. Also, the $508.9 million for tracking and data acquisition is supported. The amount allocated to civil programs reflects the current year's operating cost of the three NASA tracking networks.