Posted: Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 11:01 AM ET (1601 GMT)

A five-week partial government shutdown that idled most of NASA and several other agencies involved in space activities came to an end Friday. President Trump signed a continuing resolution (CR) late Friday restoring funding to government agencies whose appropriations lapsed when the prior continuing resolution expired December 22. The bill restores funding for those agencies, but only through February 15, in order to provide time to make a deal on controversial border security funding. The shutdown had halted all but the most essential operations at NASA and many other agencies, including the FAA, FCC, and NOAA. At NASA, about 95 percent of the agency’s civil servant workforce was furloughed.