Jenam 2011
The Orion spacecraft from NASA’s Artemis I mission is shown before it is placed on top of the Vehicle Assembly Building’s Space Launch System rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 20, 2021.
NASA/Frank Michaux / NASA/Frank Michaux
NASA will receive $24 billion as part of the $1.5 trillion government spending bill, which includes $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, passed by Congress Thursday night .
That annual budget, which will fund NASA through September, is about $700 million more than last year but is $800 million less than President Joe Biden requested in May. Biden is expected to sign the bill.
Congress has fully funded key NASA projects, including systems that will land astronauts on the Moon, a mission to return rock and soil samples from Mars, and commercial space stations that will one day replace the Space Station. international.
But the money hasn’t been enough for Gateway, an outpost that will orbit the Moon and contribute to NASA’s long-range plans to create a sustainable lunar presence, and it hasn’t met the goals of the chair for earth sciences, noted Casey Dreier, head of space policy. advisor to the Planetary Society, a non-profit organization that seeks to involve more people in space.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
