NASA’s proposed 2024 budget has advanced in Congress with money for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, the Space Launch System rocket and the likely space propellant of the future. The total NASA is asking for all its centers and headquarters – $27.2 billion – would be a 7 percent increase over current funding.

U.S., Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala), a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations who voted for the funding, said the following Alabama-related appropriations passed the committee and will go to the full Senate for approval:

• $2.5 billion for the Space Launch System program managed at Marshall in Huntsville. That would “enable future deep-space exploration and support Marshall Space Flight Center’s work in advancing this key national priority,” Britt said.
• $1.88 billion to “fully fund the Human Landing System (HLS)” involving two crewed landers to take astronauts from the Gateway lunar space station to the Moon’s surface. That program is also managed at Marshall.
• $110 million for the development of nuclear thermal propulsion research based at Marshall. Rocket builders say nuclear power will be important for deep space missions and could power future crewed missions to Mars.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has said Marshall has “both the expertise and workforce to establish a habitat and life support office that integrates and manages NASA’s efforts,” Britt said in her budget announcement.

“The Marshall Space Flight Center is second-to-none,” Britt said. “As the incredible men and women at NASA, along with their partners in the private sector, continue to make historic leaps that broaden our understanding and expand the limits of human achievement, we must ensure that their groundbreaking work is supported.

“I am proud of the work that Alabamians accomplish every day to fuel a new age of American excellence in space exploration,” Britt said, “and I am continually impressed at how our capabilities in Huntsville lead innovation crucial to our national priorities.”