There is a chance that NASA can find a second moon landers.
According to SpaceNews, Congress approved full funding for a second Artemis program moon lander in the omnibus bill.
The allocation is less than the White House requested.
There are two main teams that have signed up to offer Human Landing Services for the moon. Blue Origin leads a group of companies that include Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics.
Congress tasked NASA to find a second company following a troubled bidding process in 2020-21 that saw SpaceX selected as the sole entrant.
Photos explain NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission.
NASA's allocation is 5.6% more than the agency received in fiscal year 2022, but at current inflation rates the agency has less dollars to work with.
Science did not receive full requests for NASA's exploration program.
The bill gives $7.795 billion to science, less than the request. While astrophysics, Earth science and biological and physics sciences suffer cuts, planetary science and heliophysics get slightly more than requested.
$90 million was given to the Near Earth Object Surveyor in order to bring it into space sooner than later. NASA said the mission had passed a key decision point.
NASA is behind on its mandate to find 90 percent of the objects it is supposed to find. The extra money won't be enough to launch on time.
The co-author of Why Am I Taller is Elizabeth Howell. A book about space medicine is in the works. Follow us on social media, like us on Facebook (opens in new tab)
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