Senate committees budget for lunar landers falls short ofNASArequest

Senate appropriators are proposing to allocate $1 billion to NASA next year for the construction of new lunar landers to take humans to the surface of the Moon — roughly $2.4 billion short of what the agency requested. The shortfall threatens to delay NASA’s ambitious plan of landing the first woman on the Moon by 2024.

Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee released 12 funding bills for next year, laying out proposed budgets for the federal government. The newly released legislation would allocate a total of $23.5 billion to NASA, an increase over last year’s NASA budget but roughy $1.75 billion less than the $25.2 billion the administration had asked for.

The Trump administration has been calling for increased funding to NASA over...

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