Congress rewards NASA's accomplishments with $1.3 billion in extra funding for

With $19.3 billion included for NASA in the omnibus spending bill, the civilian space program is on the verge of a relaunch. Republican leaders in Congress released a massive budget proposal for the 2016 fiscal year - and tucked within it is a substantial budget increase for NASA.

We'll have to wait until Friday, December 18, to see if the House passes the spending bill before Congress goes on break for the holidays.

After years of penny-pinching from a lack of federal funding, the folks over at NASA woke up to a bit of pleasant news this morning when Congress announced a $1.3 billion increase for its 2016 budget. The funding maintains the current schedule for the first launch of SLS, and will help develop upper-stage engine work for future crewed missions.

Other notable areas receiving funding include NASA's Earth Science research program (of which NASA administrator Charles Bolden stumped for this summer in person at Congress), Human Exploration Capabilities, and the Space Launch System, among others. Right now United States astronauts have to hitch a ride into space on a Russian Soyuz rocket, and each seat costs the U.S. about $75 million. The commercial crew program is aimed at ending this dependent relationship, by getting American astronauts into space on American rockets again. This new report notes that the money set aside for those extra flights can be reappropriated for the commercial crew program after SpaceX and Boeing become operational. Additionally, the Space Launch System, which is meant for missions to deep space locations like Mars, will receive $2 billion under the new budget plan, which is $300 million more than was provided for it in 2015.

The bill also secures $410 million to develop all the launch infrastructure needed for KSC to launch the SLS rocket, a line item Posey has requested. The first test flight is expected before April 2023.

NASA wants to use SLS for its highly anticipated mission to Jupiter's ice-encrusted, water-filled moon Europa - a world scientists believe is one of the most likely places we'll find life beyond Earth.