Congressional appropriators in the USA Senate have unveiled the final fiscal year 2024 spending bill, detailing cuts to NASA funding compared to the agency's 2023 allocation while deferring decisions on the Mars Sample Return ("MSR") program [Senate Approves Final FY24 Funding Package in Overwhelming 74-24 Vote (March 23, 2024), https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majority/senate-approves-final-fy24-funding-package-in-overwhelming-74-24-vote]. The program is to work on using robotic systems and a Mars ascent rocket to collect and send samples of Martian rocks, soils, and atmosphere to Earth for detailed chemical and physical analysis.
The bill allocates $24.875 billion for NASA, representing a 2% reduction from the agency's 2023 budget and an 8.5% decrease from NASA's $27.185 billion request for 2024. Appropriators have directed NASA to reassess the MSR architecture through the MSR Independent Review Board Response Team and report on the recommended path forward within a balanced Science portfolio.
Based on the budgetary restrictions, NASA announced cancellation of OSAM-1 i.e. On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 which was a spacecraft designed to test on-orbit refilling of satellites. The objective of this spacecraft was complex refuelling of a satellite which was launched in 1999, and this project would have been a demonstration of the potential to repair the thousands of active satellites in orbit and keep them in operation. Even after cancellation of this program, the bill still requires $227 million for the MSR. Recommendation has been made to NASA to continually review their budgetary requirements, till September, 2024.
Apart from this, a full funding of $1.88 billion has been allocated for the Human Landing System ("HLS") program, which is a program designed to convey astronauts from the Lunar Gateway space station in lunar orbit to the lunar surface, sustain them there, and then return them to the Gateway station, and such sum has been allocated to fulfil contractual obligations for the HLS providers. The bill also provides $805 million for NASA's heliophysics division, directing NASA to plan for the Geospace Dynamics Constellation launch by the end of the decade and seek funding to enable the launch of the Venus mission by the same timeline. Significant funding is allocated for nuclear propulsion work within NASA's space technology directorate too.
Originally published by 08 May, 2024
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