Space News by Jeff Foust — February 17, 2019
An appropriation bill signed into law Feb. 15 gives NASA $21.5 billion for fiscal year 2019, $1.6 billion above the administration’s original request.
The bill, which combined several separate appropriations bills as well as a border security package, was approved by wide majorities in the House and Senate Feb. 14 in a bid to avoid another partial government shutdown. President Trump signed the bill Feb. 15, hours before the continuing resolution funding those parts of the government was set to expire.
The NASA provisions of the bill were identical to one the House passed in January, including both the overall funding level — an increase of $1.6 billion over the agency’s original request — and report language. That report retained the strong language reflecting “profound disappointment†in the James Webb Space Telescope and its latest cost and schedule overruns, and warning that if there are further problems “JWST will have to find cost savings or cancel the mission.â€
The final bill rejects the proposal to reorganize the accounts used to fund the agency that NASA included in its budget request a year ago. That proposal sought to replace the Space Technology and Exploration accounts with two called Deep Space Exploration Systems and Exploration Research and Technology, shifting some technology programs as a result as it considered the future of the agency’s overall Space Technology Mission Directorate. The final bill retains the existing Space Technology and Exploration accounts.
Space technology received $926.9 million in the bill, with the report citing “the need to maintain an independent research and technology portfolio to support both science and human exploration programs.†Of that total, $180 million will go to Restore-L, a satellite servicing mission also previously threatened with cancellation, and $100 million to nuclear thermal propulsion research, including planning for a flight demonstration mission by 2024.
More:
https://spacenews.com/final-fiscal-year-2019-budget-bill-secures-21-5-billion-for-nasa/
