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House appropriators approve NASA spending bill with revised lunar lander and nuclear propulsion lang

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Elderberry:
Space News by Jeff Foust — July 16, 2021

The House Appropriations Committee passed a spending bill July 15 that leaves intact overall funding for NASA but tweaks language regarding the Human Landing System and nuclear thermal propulsion.

The committee voted 33–26 to advance the commerce, justice and science (CJS) appropriations bill to the full House. The bill allocated $81.3 billion in funding for fiscal year 2022, including $25.04 billion for NASA.

The vote came after several hours of debate on amendments, most of which did not involve NASA. Members did swiftly approve on a voice vote one amendment, offered by Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.), that requires $80 million of the $110 million included in the bill for nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) research at NASA go toward work on a light demonstration.

At the CJS subcommittee markup July 12, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) had criticized the bill for not including that NTP flight demonstration language, which had appeared in past versions of the bill in recent years. “The omission imperils the progress of, and our previous investments in, nuclear thermal propulsion capabilities,” he said then.

More: https://spacenews.com/house-appropriators-approve-nasa-spending-bill-with-revised-lunar-lander-and-nuclear-propulsion-language/

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