NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Tuesday that he's confident President Obama is committed to human space exploration and assured scientists the agency's robotic missions will not be cut to pay for the manned program.

Bolden speaks at the American Astronomical Society meeting on Tuesday. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Bolden said NASA is still working closely with the White House to determine the future of the space program.

"I don't know what the president's decision is going to be," Bolden said. "However, having been around him and talked to him and having watched him when he's interfaced with astronauts, kids and everybody else, I cannot see this president being the president who presided over the end of human space exploration."

President Obama is weighing several options presented by a panel of experts in October on the next step in NASA's troubled Constellation moon program. The White House chartered the Augustine committee after delays in the program pushed the first launch of the new Ares 1 rocket to at least 2015, and potentially until 2017.

The program's ultimate destination and architecture are both subject to change under Obama's pending decision.

"What I know, however, is that science is important to our president, important to NASA, and crucial to whatever way forward we are to follow," Bolden said.

Bolden met with President Obama in the Oval Office last month, but neither the White House nor NASA have announced any decisions from the meeting. A formal unveiling of a new space strategy may not come until the Obama administration's budget request for NASA is released in early February.

Most of the Augustine commission's options would eliminate the Ares 1 rocket and hand over responsibility for flying astronauts to the International Space Station to the private sector. Under those scenarios, NASA would focus on designing a larger heavy-lift launch vehicle for deep space exploration.

But such plans would demand more money in an already-tight budget environment -- up to $3 billion more a year, according to the Augustine panel.

Speaking at a major astronomy conference in Washington, Bolden assured the audience of scientists that NASA's budget for research would not be cut to pay for human spaceflight.

"The future of human spaceflight will not be paid for out of the hide of the science budget," Bolden said.

The pledge drew applause from attendees at the American Astronomical Society meeting.

"We got to the point where over the last few years we've had to steal money away from everybody just to try to allow the human spaceflight program to survive," Bolden said. "That's not a way to run a railroad, and I don't intend to do that."

Bolden also stressed the importance of international cooperation, not just for human space exploration, but also on a wide range of robotic missions.

"Whether it be future human voyages beyond low Earth orbit, or complex sample return missions from Mars and deep space objects, or building future large space telescopes, NASA must pursue a new era of international cooperation, a relationship where partners are treated as equals," Bolden said.

NASA has entered into a partnership with the European Space Agency on Mars exploration and a proposed flagship mission to Jupiter. The Japanese space agency and NASA collaborate on several Earth science missions, although there is no formal arrangement.

NASA, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada are partners on the International Space Station.

Bolden met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday morning to discuss opportunities for further international cooperation in space, such as including smaller developing nations in projects.

"There are other nations that can benefit so much from being able to collaborate in the things we do," Bolden said.