Final version of budget bill increases funding for NASA

Ars Technica : The 2016 budget bill allocates to NASA a total of $19.3 billion, which is $756 million more than was requested by President Obama. The bill, which was released yesterday, is expected to be approved by the end of the week. The proposed funding for NASA includes $1.24 billion for the commercial crew program, the total amount requested by the president. The money will help fund new crewed spacecraft from both Boeing and SpaceX. Previous versions of the budget proposed by the House and Senate had not matched the requested level of funding. NASA director Charles Bolden had warned that, without that level of funding, the commercial crew program would run the risk of not being able to support its goal of delivering astronauts to the International Space Station by the end of 2017. Currently, the agency depends on Russia to shuttle US astronauts. The budget also includes nearly $500 million more than the initial proposals by the House and Senate for NASA’s Earth science programs, which have been maintained at much lower levels since George W. Bush’s presidency.