SPACE: After Clash, House Science Panel OKs NASA Authorization.

The bill supports $20.7 billion in annual spending while backing White House plans to transition the agency’s human exploration focus from low Earth orbit to the Moon and deep space.

After a 26-7 vote, the bill now moves on to the full House, with an amendment backing a $471 million increase in Earth science spending. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the committee chair, pledged to continue discussions with panel members voicing concerns over future support for space-based weather and climate data gathering and climate change research.

The bill also was amended to call for the construction of a second Mobile Launch Platform at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the Space Launch System (SLS) and to assemble a second Interim Cryrogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) for the SLS. Those are both pacing items for the second test flight of the powerful rocket and the first currently slated to include an Orion capsule with astronauts.

As it stands now, the first uncrewed test flight of SLS and Orion, Exploration Mission 1, a three- to four-week voyage around the Moon and back, is planned between late 2019 and early 2020.

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