The Trump administration’s $19.9 billion budget for NASA calls for privatizing the International Space Station. Senator Bill Nelson is blasting the proposed budget.
The budget proposal provides nearly $10 billion to support human space exploration of the moon. It pays for the Space Launch System and Orion capsule, that will launch from Kennedy Space Center, slated for a mission to the moon in 2020.
The proposed budget dedicates a good chunk of the funding toward putting humans back on the moon. To do this, NASA will have to cut costs. So the budget defunds the International Space Station by 2025, relying on commercial partners
Democratic Senator Bill Nelson and Republican Ted Cruz are against defunding the station. They sit on the subcommittee that oversees NASA.
“The administration’s budget for NASA is a nonstarter. If we’re ever going to get to Mars with humans on board and return them safely, then we need a larger funding increase for NASA,” said Nelson in a statement. “Turning off the lights and walking away from our sole outpost in space at a time when we’re pushing the frontiers of exploration makes no sense.”
NASA’s Office of Education is also defunded in this budget proposal. Five Earth science programs were also cancelled as well as a deep space telescope.
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