The house appropriators reduced NASA’s moon landing funds; Will the Senate do better?

The Trump administration proposed in its budget presentation to NASA for fiscal year 2021 that $ 4.7 billion be allocated to exploration research and development (R&D), including the Human Landing System (HLS). The numbers were designed to ensure that NASA could return astronauts to the moon by 2024.

However, House appropriators were pleased to disagree. The NASA funding subcommittee marked a bill that allocated $ 1.56 billion for exploration research and development. That means the HLS would raise just over $ 600 million for the next fiscal year, inadequate to achieve a 2024 moon landing.

NASA Administrator Jim BridenstineJames (Jim) Frederick BridenstineHouse’s appropriators cut NASA’s moon landing funds; Will the Senate do better? NASA names DC headquarters after the agency’s first black engineer Mary W. Jackson. he reacted to the news with his characteristic calm.

“I want to thank the Chamber’s Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee for bipartisan support for NASA’s Artemis program. The $ 628.2 million in funds for the Human Landing System (HLS) is an important first step in this year’s appropriation process. We still have more to do and I look forward to working with the Senate to ensure that the United States has the resources that the first woman and the next man on the moon will need in 2024. “

Someone less temperate than Bridenstine might have replied, “You hackers in the House have no idea what it takes to get Americans back to the moon. Hopefully, the Senate does. “

Eric Berger’s analysis in Ars Technica suggests that the Senate is likely to be more generous when it comes to HLS in particular and exploration in general. The House’s markup is just the beginning of a long budget process that will be informed, as Berger suggests, by the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.

Bridenstine is likely pleased that House Democrats have given her at least half a bar to return to the moon on any date, not to mention 2024. Still, the NASA funding bill for the Chamber shows that Chamber is willing to play partisan, if not with Artemis’s return to the moon program, at least with the landing date of 2024. The situation must be a source of frustration for the NASA administrator, who He has been relentlessly impartial in his pursuit of the 2024 landing target.

The reason NASA wants to land “the first woman and the next man” on the moon four years from now is the desire to avoid ADD (attention deficit disorder) that led to the cancellation of the last two attempts at return Americans to the country. Moon. Scheduling the next moon landing relatively soon would generate enough political momentum to sustain the establishment of a lunar base and eventual missions to Mars.

House Democrats do not see the date 2024 in such broad terms. They see it as a plot by President Donald Trump to polish his greatest glory by bringing Americans back to the moon at the end of his hypothetical second term. Nothing haunts Democrats more than anything that may be beneficial to President TrumpDonald John TrumpDavis: The Supreme Court decision is bad news for Trump, good news for Vance Meadows trying to root out suspected White House leakers by providing them information: Axios Pressley beats DeVos for reopening of schools : ‘I would not trust you to worry about a house plant, much less my son’ MORE. Therefore, instead of a generous NASA budget that would accommodate a 2024 moon landing, House appropriators have proposed a flat-funding bill along partisan lines, with a return to the lunar surface. that maybe it will happen in 2028, in any case.

Eric Berger is undoubtedly right that the final bill will not be resolved until December. Not coincidentally, the date is after the presidential election, suggesting that NASA’s spending bill for 2021 will depend more on the outcome of the election than on a dispute between a Democratic House and a Republican Senate.

If Trump wins re-election, he can claim a mandate regarding a wide variety of issues, space is just one of those. The final spending bill will have funding levels more to your liking and will support the moon landing of 2024.

If the former vice president Joe BidenJoe BidenDavis: Supreme Court Decision is Bad News for Trump, Good News for Vance Teachers Faces Trump at Reopening of Biden School Wins Puerto Rico Primaries MORE wins, then all bets are void. Team Biden has not yet submitted a formal space policy proposal. The chances of Artemis being directly reduced or canceled increase substantially in a Biden administration.

If Biden cancels Artemis, all hope is not lost. It is conceivable that someone like SpaceX Elon muskElon Reeve MuskHouse appropriators cut NASA’s moon landing funds; Will the Senate do better? The Hill’s Report 12:30 PM – Presented by Facebook – Trump threatens school funds for reopening of NASA, China and UAE are slated to send missions to Mars in July MORE It will attempt a lunar return commercially, either using the spacecraft, which is still in development, or perhaps using a recently proposed plan by Robert Zubrin and Homer Hickam using a commercial spacecraft and a lunar lander to be developed. Of course, Musk would have to make the project pay to do it alone.

The last alternative is to wait for a Chinese moon landing, which would be a great blow to the United States as a great power.

Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is it so difficult to return to the moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond. Blog at Curmudgeons Corner. It is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among other places.