Was the authorization for $17.6B? Or was it higher?

The official response to this on SpaceRef was very critical of a lot of the provisions of this bill. Were the requested amendments made or are we still looking at two contingency ISS resupply missions and the delivery of the AMS before 2010?

I am most interested at the provision imposing a moratorium on NASA disposing of Shuttle hardware and infrastructure. Is there a DIRECT partisan or two working away in Congress?

Authorization Bills tell NASA what to do. Appropriation bills provide the funding. The Appropriations Bill has not been passed and frequently what Congress tells us to to and what they fund us to do are two very different things...

One totally unbelievable thing in this Bill is that it limits NASA's ability to send people to conferences to publish our work. The Bill limits NASA to 5 million dollars of expenditures on conferences by both Civil Servants AND contractors paid with NASA funds. This is two-thirds less money than last year. I understand the desire to limit boondoggles, but this is a foolish way to accomplish it.

The way I read it, per "Sec. 101. Fiscal Year 2009
(a)Baseline Authorization- There are authorized to be appropriated to NASA for fiscal year 2009 $19,210,000,000 as follows:...." It then proceeds to break it down.

According to para "(5)For Space Operations, $6,074,700,000 of which--
(A) $150,000,000 shall be for an additional Space Shuttle flight to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station;
(B)$100,000,000 shall be to augment funding for ISS Cargo Services to enhance research utililization of the ISS, to remain available until expended..." (whatever the "until expended" means.) MY QUESTION IS DOES THAT MEAN REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE NEXT CONGRESS AND PRESIDENT DO? OR CAN THAT BE CANCELLED AFTER JANUARY 20?

Under subpar (b)"Additional Authorization to Address Space Flight Gap- In addition to the sums authorized by subsection (a), there are authorized to be appropriated for the purposes described in subsection (a)(3)$1,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2009, to be used to accelerate the initial opperational capability of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle and associated ground support systems, to remain available until expended."

What I'm not sure of is does "authorized to be appropriated" mean that the money is there, or just authorized IF it can be found, or if the next Congress approves or disapproves????

The other question is how can Orion/Ares I be accelerated at this point, given the problems with the Hubble repair delays, etc.?

The bill goes on to authorize money for man-tending of a Lunar base, rather than development of a full-fledged, permanent Lunar base.

Also, there is a notable LACK of ANY funds, or even any mention of the Ares V!

Good luck plowing through and figuring out what is really funded versus what is "the sense of the Congress"! I printed 18 pages from www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=27997.

You need a Philadelphia lawyer to figure some of this stuff out!

Ad LEO! Ad Luna!(somehow) Ad Ares!(someday) Ad Astra!

"There are authorized to be appropriated to NASA for fiscal year 2009 $20,210,000,000"

Yay... I think...

The text of the legislation can be found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:6:./temp/~c110KPqcsf::

(just Google the name of the law)

The authorization was for $20.21 billion, but it does not appropriate money. That is a separate bill. This bill just authorizes Congress to fund us up to the new level which is a $2.5 billion increase. We will see at the end of the existing continuing resolution on March 6, 2009, just how much money Congress appropriates for NASA.

The authorization is for $20.2 billion, not that it means anything. NASA is operating under a CR for the first half of FY2009 (at least) that freezes its budget at last year's level, $17.3 billion.

The appropriations bill for FY09 will not be considered until the new Congress convenes in January.

"The authorization is for $20.2 billion, not that it means anything. NASA is operating under a CR for the first half of FY2009 (at least) that freezes its budget at last year's level, $17.3 billion.

The appropriations bill for FY09 will not be considered until the new Congress convenes in January.

Posted by: Nemo at October 16, 2008 12:51 PM"

Uh hunh! That's what I thought! "We authorize this... Good luck finding the funds!"

Ad LEO?

Ben the Space Brit said:
"I am most interested at the provision imposing a moratorium on NASA disposing of Shuttle hardware and infrastructure. Is there a DIRECT partisan or two working away in Congress?"

Section 611, para. d, states:
"The Administrator shall terminate or suspend any activity of the Agency that, if continued between the date of enactment of this Act and April 30, 2009, would preclude the continued safe and effective flight of the Space Shuttle after fiscal year 2010 if the President inaugurated on January 20, 2009, were to make a determination to delay the Space Shuttle’s scheduled retirement."

It further calls for a report to Congress by the Administrator within 120 days of the impact of extending the Shuttle 1-to-2 years and 3-to-6 years. There are numerous other reports required to Congress, Griffin is going to be busy.

Idea, similar Henry Ford had))

I did not believe, that it could be true..

Your information is muchh ueful! Thanks!