Trump seeks billions more for NASA to get US astronauts on the moon by 2024 – By Jackie Wattles (CNN Business) / Feb 10 2020
New York (CNN Business)The Trump administration is seeking a big boost to NASA’s annual funding in order to fulfill its mission to put a man and woman on the moon by 2024.
In its annual budget request released Monday, the White House asked Congress to allocate more than $25 billion for NASA in the 2021 fiscal year, with $12.4 billion earmarked specifically for the moon landing program. That would be another significant increase to the space agency’s financing, which has seen its annual budget climb from less than $20 billion in 2017, the year President Donald Trump took office, to $22.6 billion for the 2020 fiscal year, which ends on September 30.
The document also maps out a series of future budget bumps for NASA that would raise its annual budget to $26.3 billion in fiscal 2025.
There are no guarantees that Congress will comply with the administration’s request. The White House’s budget proposal is primarily a statement of its priorities, and lawmakers virtually never follow it. Congress has traditionally funded NASA at or above the levels requested by the White House. Though, Congress has ignored specific requests, such as Trump’s calls to cancel certain science programs, including NASA’s WFIRST telescope. The space agency was allocated most, but not all, of the money it requested for its moon program, dubbed Artemis, in the spending bill lawmakers passed in mid-December.
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