[Author’s Note: Innerspace.net has been on limited release for the last week as I have taken time off to welcome a personal payload into the world, Nola Kate Money, born on 4/18/2016. As the designated landing zone also happened to be in New Delhi, India, some concessions were simply inevitable.] Story: Although it might not […]
From playing a vital role in building, staffing, and operating the International Space Station over the last 15 years, to launching the ExoMars probe this week, there is no doubt the Russian space program is a vital, and even indispensable component of the global space exploration infrastructure. According to a report in Reuters with quotes […]
The House appropriations sub-committee which funds NASA held a hearing yesterday regarding the Administration’s FY-2017 budget request. Background The Administration request for FY 2017 is $18.262 billion. NASA says that the proposed budget is really $19.025 billion because it includes $763 million from other sources. The Congressional appropriation (what NASA actually received) for FY 2016 was […]
First, the good news. We are long past the days when the release of an Administration’s budget request for NASA was the most reliable guidepost to what the future of space exploration might bring. On the other hand, we are nowhere close to the point where it is no longer relevant either. That being said, […]
For the first time in its often turbulent history, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is set to receive the full level of funding. $1.243 billion, requested by the Obama Administration. The news comes as one small part of an Omnibus Spending Bill passed by House and Senate appropriators early this morning. While the agreement, as well […]
Yesterday, a House Appropriations subcommittee approved a draft NASA FY 2016 funding bill. As expected, the bill was set at the same overall funding level as that offered up by the Administration, at $18.592 billion. To that extent, the bill is non-controversial, but that is also about as far as it goes. Once again, the […]
On Monday, the Obama Administration announced its proposed budget for FY 2016, a $4 trillion dollar (officially $3.999) spending tally which is certain to be contested by the new Republican Congress. As part of the day’s events, NASA Chief Financial Officer (CFO) David Radzanowski presented the space agency’s own $18.5 billion dollar slice of the […]
In the afterglow of a spectacularly successful initial test flight of the first, partially completed Orion spacecraft, it would have been gratifying to learn that for the first time, Congress has elected to fully fund the both the Space Launch System and NASA’s Commercial Crew program. Once again that is not the case, and America’s […]
NASA released the particulars of its FY 2015 budget request yesterday, and the 713 page document revealed some disappointing news on two programs with long term implications. The first issue is the very tenuous support for a new outer planets mission to Jupiter’s enigmatic moon, Europa. Probably second only to Mars in terms of the […]
NASA today released the following update regarding the Commercial Crew program. To a great extent, the fate and timing of the program are going to depend on whatever final budget emerges for FY 2015. So far, the program’s budgeting history has not been a happy one. The process will formally get underway on Tuesday, March […]
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