NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot has said a new NASA authorization bill passed by the House and Senate seeks to facilitate continuity for the agency’s space programs amid the budget uncertainty, Space News reported Thursday.
Jeff Foust writes the proposed measure is the first NASA authorization legislation that Congress approved since 2010 and aims to advance human spaceflight missions to Mars.
Lightfoot said Wednesday at the American Astronautical Society’s Goddard Memorial Symposium that the bill includes a provision that would create a healthcare monitoring initiative for former astronauts.
He said the long-term medical monitoring is associated with an “ethical framework†for issues related to human deep space missions that the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine developed for NASA.
Lightfoot noted that he collaborates with Erik Noble, a senior White House adviser, to facilitate the integration of NASA’s plans with the Trump administration’s policies.
