WASHINGTON – Congress will provide NASA with nearly 23 23.3 billion in final fiscal year 2021 comprehensive spending bills, restoring many science programs but sooner than the funds requested for the lunar lender program.
Congress leaders announced that on December 21, a day after an ally reached an agreement on a coronavirus relief package, Congress released a bill on minibus spending. The settlement between the House Minibus Expenditure Bill, the House and Senate Bill, was completed a few days ago, but its introduction was delayed until a deal was struck on the relief package.
It provides a બ 23.271 billion bill for NASA in fiscal year 2021, 2 2.642 million more than it received in 2020 but about 2 2 billion less than the agency’s ની 25.246 billion request. The housing bill passed in July funded NASA at the 2020 level, while the Senate bill introduced in November offered 23 23.495 billion.
As expected, the bill funds several NASA science missions designed to cancel the administration’s original request. These include the PACE and Clareo Pathfinder Earth Science Mission, the Roman Space Telescope, and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. The bill also funds NASA’s education programs, which the administration has once again called for zero.
Key components of NASA’s research programs, including the Space Launch System, Orion Spacecraft and Exploration Ground Systems, were all funded at the request of the administration or more. However, the bill provides $ 5050 million for the Human Lending System (HLS) program, the administration’s s 3.3 billion request. The Senate bill offered 1 1 billion for HLS while the House version had about 600 600 million.
NASA officials, including administrator Jim Brydenstein, had previously warned that they needed full funding from HLS to keep the human return to the moon on time by 2024. Right now, the agency is meeting all of its goals, “Bridensta told a December 9 meeting of the National Space Council. “Ultimately, if we don’t get 3 3.3 billion, it becomes increasingly difficult.”
The bill also quickly cuts off NASA’s request for a commercial low-Earth orbit development program aimed at supporting the development of commercial successors for the International Space Station. NASA asked for 150 150 million for commercial Leo development in 2021 but only મળ્યા 17 million was received in the bill. NASA faced a similar dilemma in 2020, when it received only 15 15 million of the $ 150 million it requested.
The bill includes for 1.1 billion for NASA’s space technology programs, which is the same as 2020 and shorter than the original request of about 6 1.6 billion. The report mentions funding for both on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing (OSAM) 1 mission and nuclear thermal propulsion, which is above the agency’s request. Jim Rutter, NASA’s associate administrator for Space Technologies for G, warned in September that overall funding cuts and directed increase in certain programs “severely restricts our purchasing power for other things we want to do.”
The bill includes a number of policy provisions relating to various programs. It instructs NASA to launch the Europa Clipper on SLS, but only if “SLS is available and if the torrent loading analysis has confirmed the clipper’s suitability for SLS.” It is a clear reference to concerns that arose in August Gust about “potential hardware compatibility issues” between the spacecraft and SLS.
If NASA decides that the SLS is not suitable for the Europa Clipper, NASA can then “compete fully and openly” for the commercial option. The bill specifically states that NASA will not be limited to vehicles on its current NASA Launch Services 2 contract vehicle for its competition.
The bill includes 15 6,156.4 million for NASA’s planetary defense programs. It instructs NASA to “request sufficient resources” for both the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DRT) mission scheduled for mid-2021 and the nearby Earth Survey Surveillance Mission (NEOSM), which was later launched in 2025. Said NASA. Earlier this month, a review of NEOSM was delayed due to budget uncertainty for that project.
