WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s plan to redirect U.S. astronauts to near-Earth asteroids and eventually to Mars received a boost Thursday from a Senate panel that also agreed to extend the life of the space-shuttle program for a year.
The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved a three-year spending plan for NASA that represented a compromise between Obama’s efforts to change course from returning astronauts to the moon and congressional concerns that the president’s blueprint would undermine NASA’s role in space exploration and result in job losses.
The panel agreed NASA should move quickly to develop and operate a heavy-lift rocket. Obama’s plan relies on commercial space development in the near future.
The plan would extend the space-shuttle program for at least another year, authorizing an additional mission to the international space station. It extends the international space station to at least 2020.
The measure must next be considered by the full Senate and be incorporated in annual spending bills.
