The U.S. Senate on Friday unanimously approved a one-year spending plan for NASA that, for the first time, explicitly requires the space agency to send humans to Mars in the next quarter-century.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, would give the space agency $19.5 billion for the current fiscal year. It would also, among other things, require NASA to establish a human settlement on Mars and continue the commercial space industry’s development of a new American-made rocket to once again send American astronauts to and from the International Space Station without having to rely on Russia.
“This bill marks the beginning of a new era of American spaceflight by explicitly directing NASA to put humans on Mars and helping our commercial space industry continue to grow,” said Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees NASA.
The last time Congress passed a long-term authorization bill for NASA was in 2010. That bill, co-authored by Nelson and former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, set NASA on course to build a new monster rocket to carry the Orion crew capsule into deep space and, eventually, to Mars. It also laid the groundwork for the development of a commercial space industry.
The bill now heads to the House for approval.
