CQ Politics | Innovations - NASA Reauthorization Passes, Astronauts to Return to the Moon

NASA Reauthorization Passes, Astronauts to Return to the Moon

September 27, 2008 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Kathryn A. Wolfe, CQ Staff

The House cleared a NASA reauthorization Saturday by voice vote, just one month shy of its 50th anniversary. .

The measure would reauthorize the space agency for one year at an authorized funding level of $20.2 billion. The bill embraces the agency's plan to send astronauts back to the moon in preparation for future missions to Mars and would designate $1 billion for accelerate development of a spacecraft to replace the current shuttle fleet.

A gap in America's ability to send astronauts into space between 2010, when the space shuttle fleet is to be retired, and 2015, when a new craft is to be operational, has caused considerable concern on Capitol Hill. Some lawmakers would prefer to fly the space shuttles until the new craft is operational.

But that could be expensive. A report by the body that investigated the Columbia disaster in 2003 concluded that if NASA wants to keep the shuttles flying past 2010, the fleet's components should be recertified as flight worthy.

The bill would mandate a study of the impacts of extending the use of the shuttles. In order to give the next administration time to make a policy decision, the bill directs NASA not to take any action that would preclude continuing to fly the shuttle past 2010.