spacetoday.net: NASA proposes $17.6 billion budget

Posted: Tue, Feb 5, 2008, 5:10 AM ET (1010 GMT)
NASA

The Bush Administration released its fiscal year 2009 budget on Monday, which includes $17.6 billion for NASA, a slight increase over 2008. The budget contains few major changes or other surprises, continuing funding for the shuttle and station as exploration projects ramp up. The budget does include increased funding for Earth science programs, with a commitment to begin several new Earth observing missions over the next few years. One accounting shift reflected in the budget is to move overhead costs into a separate category, cross-agency support programs. The budget includes continued funding for its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and a commitment to spend $2.6 billion over the next five years to acquire commercial ISS resupply services. The release of the budget is the first step in the lengthy appropriations process that, based on past experience, is unlikely to be completed when the fiscal year begins on October 1.