The massive tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed last week is sending millions of dollars to the Stennis Space Center just months after federal leaders proposed major NASA cuts.<\/p>\n
The Stennis funding is tucked into one paragraph of the sweeping legislation and directs $120 million to infrastructure upgrades at the rocket engine test site in Hancock County.<\/p>\n
It is part of nearly $10 billion the bill is devoting to NASA missions that will launch astronauts to the Moon and Mars. Supporters said this week that the funding will help replace aging systems and keep testing engines at Stennis, which helps drive South Mississippi\u2019s economy and creates about 5,000 jobs. Many of those who work at Stennis commute from Slidell, New Orleans, Covington and other cities in south Louisiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely significant,\u201d said Mark Glorioso, a former Director of Center Operations at Stennis who now serves as chairman of the advocacy group Partners for Stennis & Michoud.<\/p>\n
The inclusion of NASA funding in the bill is a reversal from the Trump Administration\u2019s plans earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Stennis has long tested engines for the Space Launch System, a rocket NASA calls vital to sending astronauts to the Moon. Federal leaders in May said the rocket was \u201cgrossly expensive\u201d and recommended phasing it out. But after a flurry of lobbying and negotiations, the bill Trump signed on Friday includes $4.1 billion for the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n
Specifics about how Stennis will use the money are still unclear. Spokesperson Bethany Stevens said in an email on Monday that NASA was waiting for guidance on how to enact the legislation and \u201cremains committed to executing upon the President\u2019s vision for the future of space as we usher in the Golden Age of human space exploration and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
How NASA funding passed<\/p>\n
Stennis is one of several NASA centers across the country being funded under the bill. It is also the nation\u2019s largest rocket test site.<\/p>\n
Alarmed by the possibility of cuts, Partners for Stennis & Michoud sent a delegation to Washington this spring for an annual lobbying trip organized by another group, Citizens for Space Exploration.<\/p>\n
Glorioso said members met with Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith and Rep. Mike Ezell.<\/p>\n
A bill proposed by the Senate\u2019s Commerce Committee in June reversed the Trump Administration\u2019s suggestions to cut funding. The committee, which is chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said funding NASA would help the U.S. \u201cwin the new space race with China and ensure America dominates space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wicker, who is also on the Commerce Committee, said last week that the bill will let Stennis keep testing engines for NASA\u2019s Artemis missions to the Moon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The massive tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed last week is sending millions of dollars to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[12351,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-49549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-hardwall","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-space","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}