A Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday passed its fiscal 2019 spending bill that would authorize $21.3 billion in funds for NASA, representing a $1.4 billion increase from the president’s budget request for the agency, SpacePolicyOnline.com reported Tuesday.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) led the markup of the Senate Appropriations commerce, justice and science subpanel’s bill that rejects the Trump administration’s proposal to put an end to NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, four Earth science programs and initiatives under the agency’s office of education.
Earth science, astrophysics, planetary science and heliophysics programs would get approximately $6.4 billion in funds.
The proposed legislation would allocate $5.3 billion for space exploration initiatives such as the Space Launch System, Orion, Exploration Ground Systems and Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway projects.
The measure would also earmark $933 million in funds for space technology, $725 million for aeronautics and $110 million for NASA’s education programs, according to the report.