Draft Bill Shows An Increase Of Over $400 Million Compared To FY2012

The Senate Appropriations Committee has released details of its draft Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill that provides $525 million for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program for the 2013 Fiscal Year, an increase from the $406 million provided in the final bill last year. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science draft bill provides $500 million for the program.

“Thousands of people poured out of office buildings across Washington DC this week to welcome the space shuttle Discovery to her new home, an inspiring reminder of how important the space program is to all Americans," said Michael Lopez-Alegria, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "The next astronauts to fly to space from American soil will be on American-made, commercially-built rockets, and by continuing to advance the vital Commercial Crew Program in a time of tightening budgets, Congress has sent a strong signal that this is an important priority for NASA and for the nation."

A robustly funded Commercial Crew Program is the quickest way to restore America’s access to space and avoid spending taxpayer dollars buying flights from Russia. The amount of funding for the program has a direct impact on the date of entry into service for the commercial providers. NASA is currently spending about $400M annually launching six astronauts from Russia, with the price rising every year. A less expensive, American capability would bring that money home and allow for maximal utilization of the space station for science, industry and education, while creating high-paying, high-tech manufacturing jobs across the country.

“As the House and Senate work to agree on appropriations for the upcoming year, we support the highest possible funding level for Commercial Crew,” said Commercial Spaceflight Federation Chairman Eric Anderson. “We look forward to working with Congress and NASA to reinstate America’s manned spaceflight capability as quickly as possible.”

The Commercial Crew program is using a staged competition for fixed-cost cooperative agreements and contracts to develop an American capability to deliver astronauts to low-Earth orbit. By including competition at all stages and leveraging private investment, it will save taxpayer money and allow NASA to invest in deep space exploration and scientific research.

FMI: www.commercialspaceflight.org