For the first time in more than six years, both chambers of Congress passed a bill that approves funding for NASA and gives the space agency new mandates [Ed: Link not AdBlock friendly].
The NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 is a bill that the Senate and House collaborated on for months, and it appropriates $19.5 billion to the agency. (NASA received $19.3 billion in 2016, or 0.5% of the total federal budget.)
When the Senate brought the bill before the House of Representatives for a vote on March 7, "no members spoke against the bill" and it passed, according to Jeff Foust at Space News.
The document asks NASA to create a roadmap for getting humans "near or on the surface of Mars in the 2030s." It also calls on the space agency to continue developing the Space Launch System (SLS) — a behemoth rocket — and the Orion space capsule in order to eventually go to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
It also cancels a mission to capture an asteroid, and calls on the space agency to search for aliens.
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(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday March 11 2017, @02:46AM (1 child)
Give us the budget, and guarantee it wont get cut later on, and we will.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 11 2017, @02:57AM
No guarantees, sorry. Politics, you know. If the other party takes power, they might defund it all and put the money into ethnic diversity studies.