WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee unveiled a proposal to add $10 billion to a budget reconciliation bill to offset changes to NASA human spaceflight and exploration programs in the administration’s budget proposal.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released June 5 a package of “legislative directives” he seeks to include the Senate version of a budget reconciliation bill, a broader package that includes both new spending and recissions of existing spending, along with tax cuts.
The package includes language providing an additional $9.995 billion in the current fiscal year for NASA. Those funds would be available for NASA to spend through fiscal year 2032.
The largest part of the package, $4.1 billion, would go towards production of Space Launch System rockets for the Artemis 4 and 5 missions. NASA’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal seeks to end SLS development, along with the Orion spacecraft, with Artemis 3.
Another $2.6 billion would support completion of the Gateway, which the budget proposal seeks to cancel. The bill also provides a token amount, $20 million, for continued development of Orion for Artemis 4; the bill didn’t explain the much smaller amount for Orion.
The proposal would include $700 million to fund development of a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, a dedicated spacecraft to serve as a communications relay at Mars. “This orbiter is dual-use for both a Mars Sample Return mission, to return core samples of Mars to Earth, and future manned Mars missions,” a summary accompanying the bill states, although the administration’s budget proposal would cancel Mars Sample Return.
In space operations, the proposal seeks to provide $250 million in additional annual funding for the International Space Station in fiscal years 2025 through 2029. That funding would make up for the proposed cuts in ISS operations included in the administration’s budget. In addition, the package also provides $325 million that would go towards development of the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle.
The proposal also includes $1 billion for improvements to NASA’s Kennedy, Johnson, Marshall and Stennis centers and the Michoud Assembly Facility. While NASA has a backlog of more than $5 billion in repairs and other infrastructure improvements across its field centers, the proposal “would focus only on the manned spaceflight centers and on the infrastructure needed to beat China to Mars and the Moon,” the summary stated.
The NASA language is just one part of the package that includes additional funding for Coast Guard projects and air traffic control improvements, as well as recissions of previously appropriated funds for some efforts, like climate change and environmental projects at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
One other provision of the package would charge license fees for commercial space launch and reentry licenses issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. The bill would direct the FAA to charge companies that receive such licenses a fee that would either be a flat amount or based on the mass of the payload. The summary accompanying the package estimates the fees would generate $100 million through 2034 that would help fund operations of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
“Senate Republicans are fixing the aging air traffic control system, rebuilding the Coast Guard to secure our maritime border against deadly drugs and illegal immigration, ensuring the U.S. – not China – gets to Mars and gets back to the Moon first,” Cruz said in a statement accompanying the bill.
It’s uncertain if the package will make it into the Senate’s final version of a budget reconciliation bill, which, if it passes, would have to be reconciled with a House bill that does not include that funding for NASA. The reconciliation bill has become controversial after Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX who recently ended his formal role in the Trump administration, criticized the bill. The once-close relationship between Trump and Musk has devolved into online arguments and threats.
The package, though, has the support of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). In a statement shortly after the release of Cruz’s legislative direction, the organization endorsed it, noting it funds provisions of a proposed NASA authorization bill.
“As industry continues to push into new frontiers and outpace our competitors in space, this effort shows Congress is dedicated to moving forward with mission-critical programs and maintaining our space leadership,” Eric Fanning, president and chief executive of AIA, said in the statement.
The proposal also has the support of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, an industry group whose members are primarily involved in NASA exploration programs.
“In particular, the Committee’s recognition of the critical role existing vehicles and capabilities play in exploration beyond Artemis III is not only timely, but also essential,” it said in a June 5 statement, citing competition with China in a return to the moon. “This is a race back to the Moon that the United States must win. Choosing to cede our leadership in space to China is not an acceptable option.”
