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Nelson: Budget Shortfall Delays NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
NASA's Commercial Crew program will send astronauts to the International Space Station via commercial partners SpaceX and Boeing. Photo: NASA
Sending American Astronauts to the International Space Station on U.S. rockets may have met a delay. Both chambers of Congress have budgeted less than requested for NASA’s commercial Crew Program.
Florida Senator Bill Nelson says the cut in funding will delay NASA’s goal of sending U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station from American soil. “It’s going to delay us from launching Americans on American rockets. Instead of 2017, just two years from now, it will delay us four years,” he said on the Senate floor Wednesday
The U.S. Senate Appropriations committee approved $900 million for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, $300 million less than what NASA asked for.
Nelson says NASA will have to pay Russia around $70 million a trip to the I.S.S. until the Commercial Crew Program is up and running.
“That’s the whole point of us being able to rely on our own spacecraft and our own rockets, instead of relying on the Russians,” he said.
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