NASA Budget Moves Closer to Reality
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
By: Mark Simpson

November 15, 2011 | WMFE - Lawmakers on Capitol Hill unveiled a budget compromise yesterday for numerous Federal agencies. NASA is slated to get 17.8 billion dollars.

The spending plan contains money for 2 of NASA’s top priorities; the space agency’s commercial crew program and the Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to provide deeper insights into the universe.

Congress is expected to vote on the measures on Thursday in an all or nothing vote.

It's anticipated that NASA will absorb a 648 million dollar cut made possible by the retirement of the space shuttle program.

At Kennedy Space Center last week aerospace firm Boeing announced it will headquarter its commercial crew program at KSC.  That program is expected to boost investment and job creation on the space coast over the next 5 years.

Currently NASA posesses no independent capability to send Americans to the International Space Station.  US astronauts instead hitch rides aboard the Russian operated Soyuz spacecraft.