Congress' draft spending bill for NASA does not address Trump's moon 2024 plan - Houston Chronicle

NASA would receive $22.3 billion in the coming budget year under a draft spending bill released Thursday by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee -- but that bill does not address a Trump administration plan to reach the moon by 2024.

In giving NASA $22.3 billion, the committee would provide the space agency with about $1 billion more than the current year. It provides increases for science programs, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) engagement and exploration.

But it does not mention a plan released Monday by President Donald Trump, which would use $1.6 billion in surplus Pell Grant funds to jump start the agency's five-year moonshot. The Trump plan came two months after the administration directed NASA to reach the moon four years early, in 2024 instead of 2028.

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The $1.6 billion provided in the Trump plan would help the space agency develop a commercial lunar lander for humans three years earlier than planned, funnel more money into the Space Launch System rocket being built to take the Orion spacecraft to the moon, and enable more robotic exploration of the moon's polar regions before a human mission.

The goal is to fly two SLS-Orion missions — one without humans and another with crew aboard — prior to 2024. The mini space station would also be launched during that period. Then in 2024, the third SLS-Orion mission would rocket to the Gateway, where astronauts would board a lunar lander waiting to take them to the moon's surface.

That is not laid out in the House budget bill. The committee will hold a hearing on its proposed bill at 8:30 a.m. Friday. You can watch it here.

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and science for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach him at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.

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