NASA
President Joe Biden on Monday released his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, and NASA is the big winner. The administration is asking Congress to fund $25.9 billion for the space agency by 2023, an increase of nearly $2 billion from the $24 billion the agency received for fiscal year 2022.
The Budget request for NASA It includes a healthy hike for the Artemis program, which aims to make a series of human moon landings later this decade. Notably, HLS funding will increase from $1.2 billion for the current fiscal year to $1.5 billion, enabling the second provider to get started. In addition, funding for lunar spacesuits will increase from $100 million to $276 million. NASA will also receive significant funding – $48 million – to begin developing human exploration campaigns for the moon and beyond.
All of this new funding comes in the proposed budget in addition to the billions that NASA spends annually to develop the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. Thus, Artemis’ total funding will increase from $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2022 to $7.5 billion in the next fiscal year, beginning October 1, 2022.
This means that for the first time, the agency can get all the money it needs for major programs to make Artemis moon landings. “This budget puts us on the right track,” NASA Assistant Administrator Bob Cabana said during a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon.
Money must come
There is reason to believe that NASA will get most of the money that President Biden has requested. Over the past year, the Democratic-led Congress has largely supported the president’s budget priorities for NASA. The director of the office, former US Senator Bill Nelson, has demonstrated his skill in working with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. So, if NASA can get all the funding it asked for, shouldn’t the public demand the results in return?
The agency’s current schedule for Artemis’ first three missions calls for the launch of Artemis 1 (unmanned moon flight) this summer, Artemis 2 (manned moon flight) in 2024 and Artemis 3 (astronauts landing on the moon) in 2025.
Jim Fry, associate director of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, was asked if NASA could commit to landing humans on the Moon by 2025 if the agency received the full budget request this year and in subsequent years.
Fry replied, “I can tell you that we are working every day to get Artemis 1, Artemis 2 in 2024, Artemis 3 in 2025.” “I’m not sure what a commitment is like for you, but I can tell you there are a lot of people coming into work every day and working towards it through 2025.”
Other parts of the budget
In combination with the Artemis program, the budget request will fund NASA science programs to progressively higher levels, largely due to cost overruns in europe scissors Mission. The cost of the mission, which will make dozens of flights to the interesting Jovian Moon from which its name comes, rose by $703 million to nearly $5 billion. To accommodate the cost overruns, several other missions will be delayed, including the NEO Surveyor, a mission to detect near-Earth asteroids.
The budget request also aims to double funding for a “commercial” space station development program when the ISS is retired. NASA is working with four different contractors on different proposals to have these private space stations either ready for use or in orbit by the end of 2020. 2022 to $224 million.
“NASA’s strong budget sends a message to our clients and investors about the agency’s intentions and confidence in our vision, and [the budget] It also supports the United States’ competitive leadership in the commercial sector,” said Michael Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom, one of the companies partnering with NASA.
Funding for these commercial station options appears likely, given the current tensions between the United States and its main partner on the International Space Station, Russia.
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