House passes NASA authorization bill

WASHINGTON — The House passed a new NASA authorization bill Sept. 23 that would largely keep the agency on course in its human spaceflight and science programs while directing it to prepare several reports.

The House passed the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2024, H.R. 8958, on a 366–21 vote. That far exceeded the two-thirds threshold for approval required under suspension of the rules, the legislative procedure used to take up the bill.

In remarks on the House floor, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), chair of the House Science Committee, called the bill essential to keep NASA on track to return humans to the moon through the Artemis campaign ahead of Chinese lunar exploration efforts.

“America’s role as a space leader cannot be taken for granted,” he said. “The next nation to land on the lunar surface will play a key role in guiding the norms and practices that may govern lunar and space exploration for decades to come. We cannot cede U.S. leadership at this time.”

He argued that the bill provides NASA with “thoughtful, strategic direction across NASA’s mission areas” that go beyond Artemis to human spaceflight in low Earth orbit, science programs and technology development.

The bill, introduced in July, would make few major changes in those efforts. Instead, it formally authorizes several existing NASA initiatives, like the commercial development of spacesuits for Artemis and the International Space Station, a deorbit vehicle for the ISS, the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations program to support work on commercial station that will succeed the ISS and the ongoing Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

The bill also directs a wide range of reports from NASA, on topics ranging from non-NASA demand for the Space Launch System and potential “alternative approaches” to current Human Landing System lunar lander projects to a summary of recent studies NASA has done on servicing and reboosting the Hubble Space Telescope.

No members spoke on the House floor against the bill. “While not perfect, this is a good bill that builds on the NASA Authorization Act of 2022 that was enacted as part of the CHIPS and Science Act,” said Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) during the brief debate on the bill, urging members to vote for it.

The bill now goes to the Senate, although it was not clear if senators would seek to pass it or advance a separate NASA authorization bill. “I hope that the other chamber will seize this opportunity to take up this important piece of legislation before the end of this year so that NASA will have the certainty that it needs to carry out the bold activities that we’ve tasked it with,” said Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), chair of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee, on the House floor.

The House also passed on a voice vote H.R. 6219, the Accessing Satellite Data to Enable New Discoveries Act (ASCEND) Act. The bill formally authorizes NASA’s ongoing Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program, where the agency buys commercial satellite imagery and other data for use in scientific research.

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