HOUSE SS&T COMMITTEE HEARING ON NASA’S FY2024 BUDGET REQUEST, April 2023

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a hearing on NASA’s FY2024 budget request on April 27, 2023. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was the only witness.

The hearing took place one day after the House approved a deficit reduction bill, the Limit, Save, Grow Act, that calls for cutting federal spending back to FY2022 levels and allowing only 1 percent per year growth for 10 years.  The impact of such budget cuts on NASA’s plans especially for the Artemis program was the focus of the hearing.

Members also asked about whether Artemis can stay on schedule for putting Americans back on the Moon by 2025 and staying ahead of China. SpaceX had just conducted the first launch of its Starship rocket, which will serve as the Human Landing System to get astronauts from lunar orbit down to and back from the lunar surface, a week earlier. The launch failed four minutes after liftoff, but Nelson was bullish about SpaceX’s ability to quickly try again.

SpacePolicyOnline.com published a summary of the hearing on April 27, 2023: Nelson Bullish on Starship Despite Failure, Worried About Budget Cuts.