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Senate Committee Passes NASA Authorization Bill for 2009

June 27, 2008

On June 24, 2008, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved its version of a NASA Authorization Bill for 2009. The bill authorizes NASA to spend $20.35 billion, which is $140 million more than a similar bill passed by the full House last week. It is also $2.7 billion more than the administration's proposed budget for NASA.

Of the total funds authorized in the Senate bill, $19.2 billion are intended to cover NASA's ongoing projects and commitments, and an additional $1 billion will go towards accelerating the development of a new human-carrying spacecraft. The remainder of the sum is slated to support the development of a commercial space vehicle. The language of the bill expresses strong support for international cooperation in space exploration, and for the detection and tracking of Near Earth Objects that could pose a threat to the Earth.

Now that the bill has passed the committee, it will come up for a vote before the full Senate. If passed, it will then have to be reconciled with the House version of the Authorization Bill.