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Space agency chief Daniel Goldin, who has promised the White House that he can do more with less, will not be sharing in the federal research spending spree. NASA's 1999 budget request drops slightly from this year's approved level, to $13.46 billion.

Nevertheless, Goldin says, “for what we have on our plate today, we have adequate resources” , and all major initiatives are fully funded. Space science — which includes astronomy, solar-terrestrial studies, and planetary exploration — remains about level with last year's allocation, at $2 billion.

The Discovery low-cost planetary programme, which has added two missions to its launch queue, gets a 65 per cent boost. Major development efforts, such as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), the Origins programme and Mars exploration, stay on track, and the agency will begin work on a Europa orbiter to launch in 2003 as its first low-cost outer planets mission.

The Earth Observing System (EOS) of satellites takes a cut from $704 million to $659 million. But NASA will increase spending on smaller, more focused ‘Earth probes’. While funding for microgravity research stays flat, gravitational biology and biomedical research each increase by about 25 per cent, and funding for space station research equipment jumps dramatically, from $221 million to $374 million.

One possible setback for space scientists has emerged. Last year, Congress ordered NASA not to borrow money from other parts of the agency to pay for an overrun in space station funding. Goldin now says that the agency wants to transfer $50 million in unspent funds from each of the Earth science and space science accounts to help solve the station's problem.