NASA gets a direction from Congress: Really?

William Atkins
Monday, 04 October 2010 00:03

Science - Space

The U.S. House of Representatives voted and passed on Thursday, September 30, 2010, the U.S. Senate's version of NASA's $19 billion fiscal 2011 budget proposal. NASA now has a Congressional direction to go in space with respect to manned exploration. Well, it was a compromise package.

 

 

The vote by the House (for the Senate bill) was 304 members in favor and 118 of them against the bill.

The Congress approval now means that the U.S. space agency - National Aeronautics and Space Administration - can go forward and explore into the 2010s. At the very least, it does provide NASA with some much needed 'general' direction (and money) for the next three years, and possibly longer.

That is, of course, as soon as President Barack Obama signs the NASA Reauthorization Act and Congress allocates the money, which will not happen until after the November 2010 mid-term elections.

So, the U.S. manned space program still needs more help from Congress (allocating money)  and the president (his signature), as soon as these politicians get themselves through the mid-term elections (which is really more important that allocating money to U.S. programs).

Deputy administrator for NASA, Lori Garver, stated. "To have the leadership of the Congress take that step is important right now because you have the NASA work force, I think, really looking for the direction for the future.' [LA News Monitor: 'NASA Gets $19 Billion Boost From Govt']

The money will most likely be allocated primarily for (1) an additional shuttle mission (to keep the Space Shuttle program active into 2011) (2) to design a new booster for heavy lifting (for deep space exploration, for example, for a manned trip to an asteroid), and (3) to fund the development of commercial manned spacecraft for trips back and forth from low-Earth orbit (say, between Earth and the International Space Station).

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