No more excuses: NASA in line to get funding needed for Artemis plan

NASA is a big winner after President Joe Biden released his budget request on Monday. The administration wants Congress to give the space agency $25.9 billion in fiscal year 2023, an increase of nearly $2 billion over the $24 billion the agency received in fiscal year 2022.

The budget request for NASA includes an increase for the Artemis Program, which seeks to carry out a series of human landings on the Moon later this decade. Funding for the Human Landing System would increase from the current fiscal year to the next, allowing for a second provider to begin work. Funding for lunar spacesuits would increase from $100 million to $276 million. NASA would get $48 million to begin developing human exploration campaigns for the Moon and beyond.

NASA has been spending billions of dollars every year to develop the Space Launch System rocket and the new spaceship. Overall funding for Artemis would increase from $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2022 to $7.5 billion in the coming fiscal year.

For the first time, the agency could have all of the money it needs for major programs to carry out the Artemis Moon landings.

Money should come

NASA will get most of the money requested by President Biden. The president's budget priorities for NASA were supported by the Congress last year. The administrator of the agency is a former US senator named Bill Nelson. The public should ask for results in return for funding NASA if it can get all of it.

The first three Artemis missions are scheduled to launch this summer, Artemis 2 in 2024, and Artemis 3 in 2024, with the landing of two astronauts on the Moon in the final mission.

Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, was asked if NASA could commit to landing humans on the Moon by the year 2025.

I can tell you that every day we are working to get Artemis 1 off, Artemis 2 in 2024, and Artemis 3 in 2025.

Other parts of the budget

NASA's science programs would be funded to higher levels than ever before due to cost overruns for the Europa Clipper mission. The cost of the mission, which will make dozens of flybys of the Jovian moon from whence its name derives, has increased. The mission to detect near-Earth asteroids would be delayed to accommodate the cost overruns.

When the International Space Station is retired, the budget request seeks to more than double funding for a program to develop commercial space stations. NASA is working with four different contractors on different proposals to have private space stations ready to go by the late 2020s. The budget request seeks to increase the funding from $103 million to $224 million.

Michael Suffredini, president of NASA, said that the budget further supports US competitive leadership in the commercial sector.

The current tensions between the US and Russia on the International Space Station are likely to lead to funding for these commercial station options.