spacetoday.net: Congress approves NASA budget

Posted: Thu, Nov 17, 2005, 8:42 AM ET (1342 GMT)
US Capitol

The US Senate passed a bill that provides $16.5 billion to NASA in 2006, finalizing the annual appropriations process. The Senate passed a compromise version of an appropriations bill that includes NASA and several other agencies by a vote of 94-5; the House passed the same bill last week on a 397-19 vote, shortly after the two branches of Congress worked out differences between the budgets that had previously separately passed. The bill gives NASA just under $16.5 billion for the 2006 fiscal year, which started at the beginning of October. Included in the bill is full funding for work on the Crew Exploration Vehicle and Crew Launch Vehicle, and full funding for continued shuttle and station operations. Congress also added funding to support a future shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, should NASA decide that it can safely carry out such a mission.