Space shuttle Discovery, now docked at the International Space Station, where it is delivering supplies and a humanoid robot called Robonaut 2, will conclude its final mission this week.

Shortly after liftoff, NASA officials were asked about a final complication facing Discovery. If the federal budget impasse continues, there is a possibility the U.S. government might shut down before its return.

The budget crisis is not expected to seriously interfere with Discovery’s return, an administrator said, since it is a critical mission.

But that assurance does not extend to NASA’s other goals and operations, all of which will remain up in the air until the budget complications are resolved.

Preparations for the final two shuttle missions could be postponed, for instance. And the agency’s $18.7 billion budget proposal (about the same as last year) will be complicated by continuing disagreements between the administration and Congress over NASA’s priorities.

Conservatives oppose devoting any money to earth science research. They are displeased at the data collected by the agency showing that the earth’s atmosphere is warming.

But the bigger political issues for NASA concern the future of commercial spaceflight and the agency’s approach to manned space exploration.

President Obama shut down NASA’s Constellation program, and directed the agency to begin research toward developing a new approach to space exploration. At the same time, he has backed funding to develop commercial rockets and capsules capable of carrying crews and cargo to the space station, and other destinations in earth’s orbit.

But Congress has been reluctant to agree to a more deliberate approach to exploration, and wants NASA to begin work on a heavy-lift rocket for future space missions.

How the proposed budget will be divided between these goals must be debated by Congress. The reality may be that $18.7 billion isn’t enough to accomplish the various ambitions that NASA is expected to shoulder as the space shuttle era comes to an end.

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Comments? Contact Managing Editor Nick Cowenhoven at nickc@journaltribune.com.