The U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee has drafted a NASA authorization bill that would hold the space agency's budget to $16.87 billion for 2014 and 2015, bar funding for a planned asteroid retrieval mission, and divert money for Earth observation into robotic missions to other parts of the solar system. The bill also would authorize NASA to spend $700 million annually on the Commercial Crew Program - up from the $500 million Congress authorized in 2010 - and require the agency to report every 90 days on the effort, according to the draft. Authorization bills do not provide funding; they set policy and provide guidelines for the annual spending bills that fund federal agencies.
展开▼
