WASHINGTON, D.C. – Under a one-year spending plan for NASA, approved unanimously Friday by the U.S. Senate, the space agency will be required to send humans to Mars in the next 25 years, officials said.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., would give the space agency $19.5 billion for the current fiscal year. It would also, among other things, require NASA to establish a human settlement on Mars and continue the commercial space industry’s development of a new American-made rocket to once again send American astronauts to and from the International Space Station without having to rely on Russia, according to a statement from Nelson’s office.
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Nelson is the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees NASA.
From here, his bill will head to the House.
Some highlights include: sustaining national space commitments and using the International Space Station through at least 2024; advancing human deep-space exploration -- with specific milestones of a spacecraft-only mission by 2018 and a staffed spacecraft mission by 2021 -- among other goals; the medical monitoring of astronauts; and targets to improve cybersecurity and maximize efficiency.
The last time Congress passed a long-term authorization bill for NASA was in 2010. That bill, co-authored by Nelson, set NASA on course to build a new monster rocket to carry the Orion crew capsule into deep space and, eventually, to Mars. It also laid the groundwork for the development of a commercial space industry, Nelson’s office said.