NASA Budget 2017 News: NASA Will Receive $628M More Than The Original Request Made By Obama Administration

The recently released 2017 omnibus spending bill will provide NASA with $19.65 billion for all its space exploration programs. The approved amount is $628 million more than what the Obama administration has proposed in the final budget request in February 2016.

According to the final approved bill, NASA space exploration programs will get $4.32 billion, including the $2.15 billion allotted for the Space Launch System program and $1.35 billion for the Orion project. Also, the allotted expenditure for science programs was increased from the previous $5.6 billion to $5.76 billion.

A similar trend was observed in the planetary science expenditure budget that escalated from the previous year's $1.63 billion to $1.85 billion. The allotted expenditure includes the $408 million allotted for the 2020 Mars rover mission and $275 million for the Europa missions (the Europa Clipper flyby spacecraft and the lander missions), Space.com reported.

The International Space Station and other programs run under NASA space operation projects received $4.95 billion, while the Earth Science program run by NASA was allotted only $1.92 billion as opposed to the $2.03 billion proposed by the Obama administration. Similarly, the space technology program received only $686.5 million, which is much less than the proposed $826.7 million. Both programs got less than what was proposed, but they did get exactly the amount they received last year under the Obama administration.

According to E&E News, the Congress hopes to clear the biggest (1,665 pages to be exact) and probably the most important bill of the year, by the end of this week. As opposed to previous speculations and President Trump's propositions, lawmakers rejected the proposed budget cuts for the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).

Michael Brune, executive director of Sierra Club, commented that the March for Science campaign seems to have made an impact on the final decision of the lawmakers. Furthermore, the bill also sanctioned funds for some of the NASA space exploration and Earth Science programs that are most likely to be canceled according to President Trump's 2018 budget blueprints. Such programs include Restore-L satellite servicing project and Pre-Aerosol, Clouds and Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission.