- [Jonathan] Getting
to space is expensive.
Good thing NASA will soon
be rolling in the dough.
Congress is preparing to vote
on an enormous 2009 page bill
to fund the U.S. government in 2016.
Among the many componants in that bill
is the funding for NASA
and it's mostly good news.
If the bill is approved
the agency will receive
nearly 19.3 billion dollars
in funding in 2016.
That's an increase of almost
1.3 billion dollars from 2015
but that doesn't mean NASA
is going to be able to
fund all the projects
it has planned.
The money doesn't go into
a giant space bucket.
NASA is an enormous agency
with lots of departments
and devisions so here's a quick rundown
of where some of that money will go.
Planetary science gets a nice boost.
This is the department
dedicated to exploring
our solar system.
The budget?
1.63 billion dollars
which is 270 million more
than what the president had requested.
That means we'll see funding
for the continued operation
of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity
and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
A provision in the bill requires NASA
to set aside 175 million
dollars for a new mission
to Jupiter's moon Europa
which must include
both an orbiter and a lander.
Another area that received more funding
than requested was the
space launch system.
The original request was
for 1.36 billion dollars
but the granted amount will be 2 billion.
Meanwhile the Comercial Crew Program
will get 1.24 billion.
It looks like congress
would really like us
to stop relying upon Russian space craft
to get humans into orbit.
One area that didn't
make out quite as well
was the Space Technology
Mission Directorate.
The STMD is responsible for "developing
the crosscutting,
pioneering, new technologies
and capabilities needed
by the agency to acheive
it's current and future missions."
They've received 686 million
dollars in this budget
which admittedly is more than last year
but congress included a directive
to dedicate 133 million of that budget
to the Restore-L satellite service project
which originally was under
a different department.
Bottom line that means the STMD
will have less money than it requested.
As of the time we're shooting this
congress has yet to vote on the budget
and NASA's section takes up only 10 pages
out of the 2009 page act.
There's a lot in the bill that
might raise a few eyebrows
but it looks like the general expectation
is that the bill will pass
and the president will sign it into law.
Meanwhile we here at How Stuff Works
will keep at it to bring you
the coolest stories happening right now.
Don't forget to visit
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