WASHINGTON – Congress will provide NASA with nearly $ 23.3 billion in the last fiscal year 2021 bill for omnibus spending, restoring more science programs, but remaining well below the funding sought for a monthly landing program.
Congress launched the omnibus spending bill on Dec. 21, a day after congressional leaders announced they had reached an agreement on a coronavirus aid package. The omnibus spending bill, a compromise between the House and Senate bills, was finalized a few days earlier, but its release was delayed until an agreement on the aid package was reached.
The bill provides $ 23.271 billion for NASA in fiscal year 2021, $ 642 million more than it received in 2020, but nearly $ 2 billion less than the agency’s $ 25.246 billion request. An spending bill passed in July kept NASA funding at 2020 levels, while a Senate bill introduced in November provided $ 23.495 billion.
The bill, as expected, funds several NASA scientific missions scheduled for cancellation in the administration’s initial request. This includes the PACE and CLARREO Pathfinder science missions on Earth, the Roman Space Telescope and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. The bill also funds NASA’s educational programs, which the administration has once again tried to eliminate.
Key elements of NASA’s exploration programs, including the Space Launch System, the Orion spacecraft, and the Earth Exploration Systems, have all received funding at or above the administration’s request. However, the bill provides $ 850 million for the Human Landing System (HLS) program, about a quarter of the administration’s $ 3.3 billion demand. The Senate bill provided $ 1 billion for HLS, while the House version had about $ 600 million.
NASA officials, including administrator Jim Bridenstine, have previously warned that they need full HLS funding to maintain a human return to the moon by the deadline set for 2024. “The budget request gave us what we needed to achieve a landing in 2024 and right now, this agency is fulfilling all its milestones, ”Bridenstine said at a Dec. 9 meeting of the National Space Council. “Eventually, if we don’t get $ 3.3 billion, it’s getting harder and harder.”
The bill also abruptly reduces the demand for NASA’s low-earth orbit commercial development program, which is intended to support the development of the International Space Station’s commercial successors. NASA sought $ 150 million for commercial LEO development in 2021, but received only $ 17 million in the bill. NASA suffered a similar shortcoming in 2020, when it received only $ 15 million out of the $ 150 million requested.
The bill includes $ 1.1 billion for NASA’s space technology programs, just like 2020, and far from the initial demand of nearly $ 1.6 billion. The report specifies funding for both the in-orbit maintenance, assembly and manufacturing mission (OSAM) 1 and for nuclear thermal propulsion that is above the agency’s request. Jim Reuter, NASA’s associate administrator for space technology, warned in September that reducing global funding and directing growth to specific programs “greatly restricts our purchasing power for the other things we want to do.”
The bill includes several policy provisions related to various programs. Instructs NASA to launch Europa Clipper on SLS, but only if “SLS is available and if the torsional load analysis has confirmed the suitability of Clipper for SLS.” This is an apparent reference to the concerns that arose in August regarding “potential hardware compatibility issues” between the spacecraft and the SLS.
If NASA determines that an SLS is not suitable for the Europa Clipper, NASA may conduct a “full and open competition” for a commercial alternative. The bill specifically stipulates that NASA would not be limited to vehicles currently on its NASA Launch Services 2 contract vehicle for that competition.
The bill includes $ 156.4 million for NASA’s planetary defense programs. It instructs NASA to “request adequate resources” for both the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, scheduled for launch in mid-2021, and the Near Earth Surveillance Mission (NEOSM), the latter being launched in 2025. NASA said earlier this month, delayed the review of NEOSM due to budgetary uncertainty for the project.