spacetoday.net: House bill would roll back proposed NASA changes

Posted: Wed, Jul 21, 2010, 6:58 AM ET (1058 GMT)
NASA

A House version of a NASA authorization bill released this week would sharply limit funding for a number of initiatives in the administration's budget proposal for NASA while supporting continued government development of spacecraft and launch vehicles. The bill would authorize NASA at the same overall level as the administration's proposal, but would provide only $50 million a year for five years for commercial crew development efforts, plus $100 million a year for a loan guarantee program; the White House had requested $6 billion over five years for that effort. The bill would also call on NASA to continue to develop a crewed spacecraft and launch vehicle closely derived from the Constellation program the administration sought to cancel. The bill does support an extension of ISS operations to 2020, as requested, and provides some funding for space technology development. Unlike the Senate version of the authorization bill, the House version does not call for an additional shuttle launch. The House Science and Technology Committee is scheduled to take up the bill on Thursday, and it could go to the House floor as soon as next week.