spacetoday.net: House committee approves NASA authorization bill

Posted: Thu, Jun 5, 2008, 1:53 PM ET (1753 GMT)
NASA

A committee of the US House of Representatives approved legislation on Wednesday that would authorize additional funding for NASA but also require the space agency to add another shuttle mission to the manifest. The House Science and Technology Committee unanimously approved HR 6063, the NAS Authorization Act of 2008, during a markup session Wednesday. The bill would authorize a $20.2-billion budget for NASA in fiscal year 2009, although there is no guarantee that level of funding would be appropriated. One provision of the bill would require NASA to add another shuttle mission to fly an experiment, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, to the ISS before the fleet can be retired in 2010. The committee turned down a proposed amendment that would allow the space agency to make greater use of alternative fuels. The legislation must still be approved by the full House, while a companion bill has not been introduced yet in the Senate.