Biden Administration Proposed New Funding for NASA’s Lunar Aspirations

The Biden administration has proposed new funding for NASA’s lunar aspirations, which also includes a second-moon-lander project that would compete with an already awarded effort from SpaceX.

The White House budget request includes about $1.5 billion in funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's moon lander program, according to documents released by the space agency on Monday. In the previous fiscal year, the agency received about $1.2 billion for those efforts.

NASA has been pushing to take astronauts back to the lunar surface. It also plans to test its Space Launch System this year, which is a massive rocket developed by companies including Boeing Co, by using it to launch the spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp around the moon.

NASA has declined to break out how much funding would be applied to the new lander bidding and has said that specifying a sum could alter how the procurement works. 

In addition to finding suggestions for the second lander, NASA officials have announced last week, the agency will give Space Exploration Technologies Corp, the official name of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, many people landing work on the moon below the Current contract.