Senator Amends Unrelated Bill to Force NASA to Pick Another Lunar Lander

takyon writes:

Congress fires warning shot at NASA after SpaceX Moon lander award

On Wednesday, a US senator added an amendment to unrelated science legislation that would impose significant restrictions on NASA and its plans to return to the Moon.

[...] as other amendments to the bill were debated and rejected, one of the Endless Frontier Act co-sponsors, Republican Todd Young of Indiana, expressed frustration with the process. "This bill, in the main, is not supposed to be about space, private space companies," Young said. "It in the main is supposed to be about competing, out-competing, out-innovating, outgrowing communist China."

[...] The legislation calls for $10.03 billion in additional funding for NASA to carry out the Human Landing System program. This legislation comes as Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos have been urging Congress to add $10 billion to NASA's budget-enough money to fully fund the development of a second Human Landing System.

[...] [Washington Senator Maria Cantwell's] amendment mandates that NASA move forward with two landers. If the amendment is signed into law, NASA would likely have to re-open the competition, thus delaying work on the agency's return to the Moon and putting an already difficult target of 2024 into further jeopardy.

This legislation also ignores NASA's own plans to both create a lunar lander competition as well as keep the possibility of a 2024 landing on track. Under NASA's plans, SpaceX would work at full speed toward the 2024 landing, while a second company would be brought on to compete for subsequent landings. But this has not mollified Cantwell. With her amendment, Cantwell seems to be saying that if Blue Origin can't be included in the program, Artemis shouldn't move forward.

The bill would also require NASA to continue development of the "Exploration Upper Stage," which is a new, more powerful second stage for the agency's Space Launch System rocket. Moreover, the bill says this upper stage should be ready for use on the third launch of the rocket.

Cantwell amendment (PDF).

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.