House likely to pass Senate's vision for NASA

The House appears poised to pass the Senate's $19 billion reauthorization of NASA on Wednesday, preserving the space shuttle program through next year but giving the White House most of their desired cuts to the human spaceflight program.

If the House approves the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously last month, it would mean an end to most of the Constellation program and increasing reliance on Russia and the commercial space industry to ferry American astronauts to the International Space Station.

The move would also put a temporary stop to a year of wrangling over the agency's future. Lawmakers, particularly those from Florida and Texas with numerous NASA jobs in their districts, have strongly resisted the administration's attempts to privatize human spaceflight. The authorization would lay out a three-year vision for NASA but would still require appropriators to fund the bill's priorities at a later date.

House Science Committee chairman Bart Gordon, (D-Tenn.) said he will support what he considers a flawed Senate bill because there isn't enough time to reach a deal before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. Gordon offered a compromise of his own last week but that effort stalled after meeting opposition in the upper chamber.

The bill includes $1.6 billion to boost the commercial space industry, $400 million more than in Gordon's bill but still less than half the amount requested by the White House. But the Commercial Spaceflight Foundation said passing the Senate bill would be vastly preferable to continued uncertainy, which may result in layoffs.

The Senate bill also deviates from President Obama's plans by continuing the space shuttle program for one final flight next year. The bill would also preserve aspects of the Constellation program including the Orion crew capsule and a heavy-lift rocket designed to travel to Mars, both of which are opposed by the administration. The projects survived partly due to the vocal efforts of Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).

A Senate aide the bill would also substantially invest in advanced exploration technologies and robotics. The Senate bill moves up the timetable for the development of a long-range space vehicle in response to lawmakers' concerns about relying on Russia for human spaceflight.