NASA budget jumps $1.6 bn above White House request

Washington March 24 (IANS) NASA s will get $20.7 billion -- $1.1 billion more than 2017 funding and $1.6 billion above the White House request -- under a spending bill that cleared Congress this week and was signed by President Trump on Friday.

A big beneficiary will be the planned rocket to take astronauts into deep space and onto Mars the Space Launch System (SLS) which will get $2.15 billion and the Orion crew capsule which will launch on top of the SLS will get $1.35 billion AL.com reported.

According to a report spaceflightnow.com the NASA funding was part of a $1.3 trillion federal spending package that keeps the government running through the end of fiscal year 2018 -- September 30 -- after multiple stopgap budgets in recent months.

The budget provides $350 million for construction of a second SLS mobile launch platform a project which NASA believes could shorten the gap between the first and second Space Launch System flights.

Funding for a second SLS launch platform was not included in the White House s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal.

Robert Lightfoot NASA s outgoing acting administrator set to retire at the end of April told a House subcommittee on March 7 that there was insufficient money in the agency s budget to build a second SLS platform without delaying or canceling other projects.

While responding to a question during the hearing Lightfoot said that a second SLS mobile launch platform would be better for the program in an "ideal world."

"I could fly humans quicker probably in the 2022 timeframe " with a second mobile launch platform Lightfoot said.

--IANS
gb/vm