The Trump administration’s new budget proposal, presented nine months before the next U.S. presidential election, further bolsters — both civilian and military — space activities.
Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA in office since April 2018, is thrilled: the budget proposal released by the White House on February 10, for the fiscal year 2021 (starting on October 1), allots $25.246 billion to the U.S. space agency. That is a 12% increase from the $22.629 billion that Congress appropriated for NASA for fiscal year 2020.
Such a budget had not been reached since 1970 and will be followed by regular increases over five years.
Back to the moon.
The aim is mainly to boost the Artemis lunar program, which Donald Trump wants to see succeed in 2024. Almost half of the funds would thus be allocated to the Moon to Mars program — to the detriment of several scientific and educational programs — which includes the development of robotic lunar landers, heavy launchers and new space suits.
“If the president's support for NASA wasn't clear before, it should be obvious now”, said Jim Bridenstine.
$15.4 billion for the Space Force.
In addition, the 2021 budget plans to allocate to the Space Force, the sixth branch of the United States armed forces created on December 20, an envelope of $15.4 billion.
This substantially increased funding budget occurs nine months before the next presidential election. Besides, the White House plans a 3% raise per year for 15 years — a scenario never seen in the recent history of the United States.