Critical Week Awaits Bush

President Bush will attend a memorial service at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Tuesday for the seven Columbia astronauts, the White House announced Sunday. But he will not delay plans to push at the United Nations this week for a quick confrontation with Iraq over its weapon program.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer outlined a scrambled schedule for the president, in which Bush will meet this morning with Sean O’Keefe, the NASA administrator, for the first time since the shuttle disintegrated. O’Keefe will also meet with senior congressional Republicans and Democrats who specialize in space issues.

Although the loss of the shuttle will prompt a review of the nation’s space program, Fleischer said, Bush is determined that “the mission of science and the marvels of space exploration will go on.”

He said Bush “wants to make certain that every angle, every reason, every possibility of how this happened will be independently reviewed.”

The trip to Texas will force Bush to reschedule meetings with the king of Bahrain and the president of Poland. He is seeking their support as he builds a coalition for action against Iraq.

On Wednesday, the administration will intensify that effort when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell presents to the U.N. Security Council intelligence information that the U.S. says shows Iraq has been violating its disarmament agreements.

In another major administration action, the president is sending a budget proposal for fiscal 2004 to Congress today that contains what officials have portrayed as dramatic shifts in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, increases in defense spending and an overhaul of retirement savings plans.

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the president was asking Congress to increase NASA’s overall budget, including spending on the shuttle program, by $469 million from its current $15 billion. He said the proposal may be affected later by the shuttle disaster investigation. The government must weigh how to proceed with the shuttle program and, in particular, whether to extend the use of the current fleet or speed up the development of a next generation of spacecraft.

He said the administration can deal with the shuttle disaster without altering its other initiatives.

“The president does not see it connected to other events around the world,” the official said. “This does not have any impact or change any of the president’s responsibilities to keep the peace and protect the American people from dangers around the world.”

Bush spoke several times by telephone Sunday with Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, who provided updates on the shuttle aftermath, Fleischer said. Senior White House aides, including John Marburger, the White House science advisor, also conferred with the president.

The president also spoke by phone with President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India. He expressed “mutual condolences” with Vajpayee because one of the Columbia astronauts, Kalpana Chawla, was born and raised in India.

Accompanied by First Lady Laura Bush, the president attended the 8 a.m. worship service at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Sunday.