WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The bill authorizes the US federal government to appropriate $19.5 billion for space exploration, operations, science, aeronautics, space technology, education, safety, security and mission services, construction and environmental compliance and restoration, as well as an inspector general.
Trump sign NASA bill raising budget to $20bil focusing on human exploration of deep space,we're going to MARS folks! pic.twitter.com/mjVUIqfu5G
— Bruce Porter, Jr. (@NetworksManager) March 21, 2017
NASA is expected to face cuts under Trump's fiscal year 2018 budget of approximately 1 percent, to $19.1 billion.
A new appropriations bill for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will allow US astronauts to renew the exploration of space in American-built rockets, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.
"[The legislation] continues support for the commercial crew program which will carry American astronauts into space from American soil once again," Trump said according to a pool report. "It orders NASA to… continue transitioning activities to the commercial sector where we have seen great progress. I'm delighted to sign this bill."
The legislation mandates NASA to achieve the goal of human exploration of Mars and the expanded exploration of the solar system.
The will allow US astronauts to renew the exploration of space in American-built rockets, President Donald Trump stated.
"[The legislation] continues support for the commercial crew program which will carry American astronauts into space from American soil once again," Trump said according to a pool report. "It orders NASA to… continue transitioning activities to the commercial sector where we have seen great progress. I'm delighted to sign this bill."
The bill "supports NASA's deep space exploration including the space launch system and the Orion spacecraft…. It advances space science by maintaining a balanced set of mission and activities to explore our solar system and the entire universe," Trump added.
The bill authorizes the US federal government to appropriate $19.5 billion for space exploration, operations, science, aeronautics, space technology, education, safety, security and mission services, construction and environmental compliance and restoration, as well as an inspector general.
LIVE NOW: @POTUS signs the 2017 NASA Authorization Act. Watch: https://t.co/rUrtFD4xk0 pic.twitter.com/vZpgTnkrrE
— NASA (@NASA) 21 марта 2017 г.
The NASA Authorization Act of 2017 has passed through both houses of Congress, granting NASA its largest budget to date, and includes a clear mandate to get humans ‘near or on the surface of Mars in the 2030s.'
The bill reads it is the sense of Congress that expanding human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and advancing toward human missions to Mars in the 2030s, what requires early strategic planning and timely decisions to be made in the near-term on the necessary courses of action for commitments to achieve short-term and long-term goals and objectives.
