Hanneke joined the team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at. NASA's funding for the International Space Station hasn't decreased, either - Biden has proposed a $1.3 million budget for the orbiting lab, a meager 0.5% increase from last year's budget. In other words, NASA will have the resources to help private companies start to develop their own space stations. This covers commercial cargo and crew launches to the International Space Station, like SpaceX's Dragon missions, 'as well as funding our partnerships with industry to develop commercial destinations in LEO,' Shinn said. NASA may be planning to end its involvement with the International Space Station someday, but the agency isn't ditching low Earth orbit (LEO) altogether.īiden's budget request for 2022 features a big boost in funding for commercial development of low Earth orbit, with a budget of $101.1 million - up nearly 500% from the previous year. It has completed its primary mission and funding has consistently been added back by Congress, but it is, in terms of dollars and analysis, the second most expensive operating mission in astrophysics,' Shinn said. 'This budget does recommend the termination or least shutdown of the SOFIA mission.

Part of NASA's astrophysics division, SOFIA has been making flights to study the cosmos from up in the stratosphere since 2010, although it has been grounded several times for maintenance. However, NASA's iconic airborne observatory SOFIA (short for Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) is once again on the chopping block. (Image credit: NASA)Īfter the prior presidential administration repeatedly tried to cut NASA's Earth science missions, Biden's budget gives Earth science a 12% boost with $2.3 billion in funding for the year. The program aims to establish a long-term human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s, as a way to help NASA prepare for its next giant leap - crewed missions to Mars. 'It has been in no uncertain terms expressed to me by members of both the House and the Senate, that they want a competition for the remaining lander contracts that will occur over the course of the decade following the first demonstration flight, which is thought to be in 2024,' Shinn said.Īs that comment suggests, Artemis is about more than just the planned 2024 landing. The Endless Frontiers Act is still working its way through Congress, however, so it's unclear if NASA will get the money.) The amendment would give NASA an additional $10 billion to nurture the development of a second privately built crewed lunar lander.

(Such an amendment has already been submitted as part of the $195 billion Endless Frontiers Act, which aims to boost American technological competitiveness. If the GAO decides in favor of Blue Origin and Dynetics, Congress and NASA will need to come up with a budget amendment to fund the additional lander.

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