House plan edges toward extra shuttle flight

House plan edges toward extra shuttle flight
WASHINGTON — The latest House proposal for NASA's future edges closer to President Obama's plan to develop a commercial rocket program and would provide the extra space shuttle flight sought by shuttle advocates in Florida.



But it's not clear the three-year bill released Thursday will satisfy NASA advocates in the Senate. House and Senate lawmakers may continue haggling over their differences after the election.

"This is a good, bipartisan and fiscally responsible bill," House science committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., said after releasing the compromise.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, who has led negotiations with Gordon, said he still hopes the two chambers will come together and approve a compromise on NASA policy by the end of next week.

"We're trying to match up," he said. "We're talking."

Gordon said certain senators want to reduce NASA funding -- currently about $19 billion a year -- by $1 billion a year. But after huddling in a hallway with Nelson, Gordon said senators are negotiating in good faith and legislation still could be approved.

The House compromise bill released Thursday would spend $600 million on a third and final shuttle flight. That's vitally important to Kennedy Space Center, where the shuttle fleet's retirement next year could cost about 8,000 jobs. The House science committee's earlier proposal -- and a rival bill approved by the Senate -- also called for an extra shuttle flight.

The main debate over space policy is whether to spend money on NASA rockets or those developed by commercial companies.

Obama has proposed giving NASA an additional $6 billion over five years to work with private companies to develop commercial rockets that would ferry people to the International Space Station. He also wants to eliminate the Constellation return-to-the-moon program and its Ares rocket.

In the House, where opposition to commercial rockets is strongest, the latest compromise would boost the amount spent on commercial rocket development to $1.2 billion over three years, up from $464 million in a committee-passed bill.