--- title: "Congress Budget Denies NASA Full Funding for Moon Missions" description: "According to a House appropriations bill released today, Congress doesn't intend to raise NASA's budget, setting aside the same $22.63 billion for 2021." date: "2020-07-07" modified: "2020-07-07" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/congress-budget-denies-nasa-full-funding-for-moon-missions" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Moon" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "artemis" - "lunar lander" - "moon" - "NASA" - "SpaceX" --- # Congress Budget Denies NASA Full Funding for Moon Missions ![According to a House appropriations bill released today, Congress doesn't intend to raise NASA's budget, setting aside the same $22.63 billion for 2021.]() *\Image: NASA\* The Trump administration was hoping to flesh out NASA's budget to around [$26 or $27 billion]() starting in 2021 — an increase in the neighborhood of $3 billion compared to 2020 intended to get the space agency back to the Moon by 2024. But according to a House appropriations bill released today, Congress has no intention of raising NASA's budget, setting aside the same $22.63 billion as last year. To put that into perspective, the US military budget is [more than 32 times]() that. New York City alone [has a budget of $97.8 billion]() — more than quadruple NASA's budget. Needless to say, the bill comes as a blow to the nation's space exploration efforts. The White House has made a big deal about NASA's ambitious plans, as part of the agency's Artemis missions, to return Americans to the Moon by 2024. But budgets have been tight, with NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine [repeatedly knocking on Congress' door]() to ask for much-needed budgetary increases — which his agency was never awarded. Unsurprisingly, getting to the Moon is a costly affair. According to a June 2019 [interview with *CNN*](), Bridenstine claimed that putting astronauts back on the Moon could cost an additional [$20 to $30 billion](). In February, NASA human spaceflight chief Doug Loverro (who since has been replaced after [mysteriously stepping down]()) [announced]() that the agency will need $35 billion over the next four years to successfully complete the [Artemis mission]() — again, on top of existing budgets. NASA wants to leverage the help of key commercial spaceflight players, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, to return American astronauts to the lunar surface. In April, NASA [chose the two companies](), alongside US-based spaceflight firm Dynetics, to submit designs for a lunar lander. The three designs were meant to have shared access to $3.4 billion, a sizable chunk of the agency's budget. The House Appropriations Committee came back with less than half that, setting aside only $1.56 billion, not just for the landers, but for exploration research and development as a whole. In other words, all three lander concepts now have to compete for just over $600 million. "The $628.2 million in funding for the Human Landing System (HLS) is an important first step in this year’s appropriations process," Bridenstine said in [a muted statement](). The House appropriations bill does include increases for NASA's science programs, funding for the Clipper mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, and an additional $400 million for NASA's Space Launch System — the agency's own ([extremely expensive]() and behind schedule) efforts to develop a heavy-lift launch vehicle. It's important to note that the bill is only one small step in a much longer process. The Senate will have a say as well, but when it will make any announcements related to NASA's budget is still unclear. Bridenstine has his work cut out, and will have to work with relatively limited resources going forward. "We still have more to do, and I look forward to working with the Senate to ensure America has the resources to land the first woman and next man on the moon in 2024," he said in his statement. **READ MORE:** [House bill offers flat funding for NASA]() \[*SpaceNews*\] **More on SLS:** *[Boeing Just Powered Up NASA’s Most Powerful Rocket Ever]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()