NASA wants a big budget increase for its Moon plans. Is Congress biting?

Enlarge / NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says that competition is good for the Artemis Moon program. (credit: NASA)

The odds of NASA sending humans back to the Moon by 2024 are long-not zero, but pretty close.

Probably the biggest near-term impediment the space agency faces is funding. Specifically, NASA requires an additional $3.2 billion in fiscal year 2021 to allow contractors to begin constructing one or more landers to take astronauts down to the Moon's surface from a high lunar orbit. This is a 12-percent increase to NASA's budget overall.

The 2021 fiscal year begins in a week, on October 1. The US Congress recently passed a "continuing resolution" that will keep the government funded through December 11. By that time, after the 2020 election, it is hoped that the House and Senate can agree on a budget that would fund priorities for the remainder of the fiscal year.

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