The NASA Commercial Crew Program was the effort to get safer human-rated spacecraft after the Shuttle. NASA selected two Boeing and SpaceX to do the work. Congress underfunded the Commercial Crew program for years. This ended up costing years of delays.
Congress had only provided one-fourth of the NASA request for the Lunar Lander. NASA gave all of that amount to SpaceX.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos and partners Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Leidos have Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell try to get another $10 billion awarded for their Lunar Lander.
Congress would have to boost NASA’s 2022 budget by 10% to fund the new $10 billion. There would be a budget fight every year for four more years to keep the increase in NASA’s budget. If the budget fight is lost in any year then there would be an underfunding and potential lengthy delays in the development of Lunar Landers.
SOURCES – Senate
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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