Big boost for science in latest NASA budget

NASA got an unexpected gift from Congress to close out the 2015 holiday season: a significant increase in funding. The 2016 omnibus spending bill is the most generous in years. It allocates $19.3 billion to NASA. Previous versions of the bill included cuts for some programs, but those were almost completely reversed in the final version approved by the House and Senate. NASA’s Planetary Science program picked up a 13 percent increase to $1.63 billion, and the space agency’s overall science budget increased by 6.6 percent to $5.6 billion. Even Earth science saw an increase of 8.4 percent after much noise about cuts earlier in the year. The new budget includes $175 million for a mission to Europa and mandates the mission carry a lander as well, something NASA didn’t want on the current mission