Five Percent Increase Requested for NASA, but Lunar Lander Left Short

The Biden White House’s budget request for discretionary spending in Fiscal Year 2022, as reported by Space.com, includes a $24.7 billion request for NASA, and within that a $6.9 billion request for the lunar project Artemis. The former is comparable to what the Trump Administration requested for FY2021. If authorized by Congress, would represent a $1.5 billion or 5% increase for the whole budget – about the pace of the increases Congress was voting during Trump’s Presidency. The rise for Artemis would be $325 million, also about 5%. That would mean, however, that there would still be insufficient funding for the lunar lander program to get development of the lander off the ground. This is the critical element of the Artemis program which has fallen well behind the 2024 schedule for a crewed Moon landing which Trump set.