A key Senate committee on Thursday approved an authorization bill that would allow NASA to add one more space shuttle mission before retiring the fleet, and press forward with ambitious plans to send astronauts to an asteroid and on to Mars.
After months of debate and criticism, the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation committee passed the NASA authorization bill by a unanimous vote. The bill will now move up to the full senate for review.
"NASA is an agency in transition. We've had to take a clear, hard look at what we want from our space agency in the years and decades to come," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller, IV (D-West Virginia), who chairs the Senate committee, in a statement. "I've made my views on this matter very clear: NASA's role cannot stay static. It must innovate and move in a new direction."
The extra shuttle mission would fly in 2011, after two more flights currently planned for November 2010 and February 2011.
more SPACE.com -- Senate Panel Approves NASA Plans to Send Astronauts to Asteroid, Mars
After months of debate and criticism, the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation committee passed the NASA authorization bill by a unanimous vote. The bill will now move up to the full senate for review.
"NASA is an agency in transition. We've had to take a clear, hard look at what we want from our space agency in the years and decades to come," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller, IV (D-West Virginia), who chairs the Senate committee, in a statement. "I've made my views on this matter very clear: NASA's role cannot stay static. It must innovate and move in a new direction."
The extra shuttle mission would fly in 2011, after two more flights currently planned for November 2010 and February 2011.
more SPACE.com -- Senate Panel Approves NASA Plans to Send Astronauts to Asteroid, Mars