By Lee Roop
The Biden administration rolled out its proposed $24.8 billion NASA budget for fiscal year 2022 Friday afternoon, a plan that would keep the nation on track to return to the Moon using a mix of “legacy” space companies like Boeing and new stars like SpaceX.
The budget request, which is $1.5 billion above this year’s funding level and must be approved by Congress, was good news for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Officials with the agency were not available for comment Friday afternoon. It continues work on a larger, second-generation version of the Space Launch System (SLS) that will take the first astronauts back to the Moon. That new version is called Block 1B, and it is bigger and more powerful than the one being built now. Altogether, SLS funding next year is proposed at $2.487 billion
https://8f218d1c07c13de8c281c6d5118bd451.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html Marshall leads the development of SLS, including Block 1B, and Boeing’s space division in Huntsville builds the SLS core stages and the computer systems that control it in flight. The stages are built at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
When NASA turned to new space companies like SpaceX for key roles in meeting former President Trump’s goal of returning to the Moon by 2024, some saw those companies mounting a serious challenge to eclipse “legacy” space companies such as Boeing. Canceling or slowing development of Block 1B could have been a signal that view was right, while keeping 1B moving forward signals the SLS platform and the jobs it supports in Alabama aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
NASA Administrator Sen. Bill Nelson called the budget request “very aggressive” and “forward leaning” and said the president is showing “strong support” for the lunar return program started by Trump and named Artemis. That show of support comes as SpaceX begins developing for NASA the lander that will put the Artemis astronauts on the lunar surface.
“These charts are showing you a regular presence on that lunar surface and a regular cadence to those missions,” NASA acting Chief Financial Officer Steven Chinn said during the briefing. Chinn called the agency’s ongoing support for Artemis “one of (its) most exciting parts.”
The budget request also funds another major initiative: Earth observation. “It will allow NASA to build the next-generation platform the Earth System Observatory,” Nelson said. He described the system as “an array of space-based satellites, instruments and missions that will help give us a 3D view of Earth as a system.
“And that will inform our decision making to prepare and protect our communities in the face of natural hazards,” Nelson said.