But it isn’t final until the omnibus bill agreed to by congressional negotiators gets final approval from both houses of Congress. Those votes are expected by the weekend.
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One of NASA’s primary goals is to free itself from Russian reliance to get to the International Space Station. Congress even went so far as to strongly urge NASA to use this funding in a way that promises commercial launches by 2017. While at Vandenberg at the Astrotech Space Operations facility, the spacecraft will undergo final processing including the installation and testing of the SEIS instrument, system-level checkout, propellant loading and a spin balance test. So the administration asked for $1.24 billion to make up for past budget shortfalls. Assuming the budget passes without any major changes, NASA should expect roughly $19.3 billion doled out to its various branches and research sectors.
“I have always been a strong supporter of the Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA’s efforts to develop the Space Launch System and maintain America’s position as the leader in human space exploration”, said Senator Shelby. “We’ll be flying on American rockets”. That’s still less than 1 percent of total federal spending, but it’s a big jump from the $18 billion the agency received for 2015.
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InSight was previously scheduled to ship to California in early January, but delivery was moved three and a half weeks early to provide more time at the launch site for the integration of the seismometer instrument (SEIS) developed by the French Space Agency, CNES. To put that in perspective, it’d mean an increase of $1.27 billion. The Science division would receive almost $5.6 billion, which is about $300 million more than what the administration requested. The Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France’s space agency, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are each contributing a science instrument to the two-year scientific mission. That’s $345 million more than in fiscal 2015 and $301 million above the administration’s request. That potentially refers to the Exploration Upper Stage that NASA wants to build. This upper stage comprises the top of the vehicle; when in space, it separates from the rest of the rocket and ignites its engine, carrying payloads – or people – deeper into orbit.
