„Der US-Senat ermächtigt die NASA, sich voll und ganz am Mond-Weltraumrennen zu beteiligen“

>Major changes to Artemis approved

>With the revised legislation, Cruz and the Senate committee have empowered Isaacman and NASA to make significant changes to the Artemis Program. The revised plan for the space agency will likely lead to more launches and a much greater emphasis on the lunar surface.

>Among the key Artemis changes in the reauthorization legislation:

>It notes the Space Launch System rocket “has not met” its intended flight rate and that the Exploration Upper Stage is “behind schedule and over budget.” It allows Isaacman to identify alternatives for a new upper stage and gives him a green light to “standardize” the SLS rocket to fly it more often. This effectively cancels future upgrades, as Isaacman sought.

>The legislation does not mention the Lunar Gateway. Notably, a version of this legislation authored just last week said a lunar orbiting Gateway was “critical” for future deep space exploration in section 206. Now that language is gone, replaced by a request for Isaacman to brief Congress on plans for a “lunar outpost” in 60 days.

>Later in the legislation, on page 34, it states, “The Administrator may repurpose, reprogram, reconfigure, or reassign existing programs, platforms, modules, or hardware originally developed for other programs.” Essentially, this allows Isaacman to use elements of the Lunar Gateway and a second mobile launch tower for other purposes.

>The legislation contains a lot of other notable elements. For example, a provision championed by former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine to cap the space agency’s ability to procure commercial launch services [was stripped out](https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/former-nasa-chief-turned-ula-lobbyist-seeks-law-to-limit-spacex-funding/). And the bill also extends the lifetime of the International Space Station until 2032 to give commercial space station providers more time to bring their private facilities online.

>But the big picture here is that the US Senate has put out one of its most important pieces of spaceflight legislation in decades: Senators have instructed Isaacman to go fly the Artemis program with all due speed, to do so as he deems best, and to focus on building a Moon base rather than a space station in lunar orbit.

This time, with no budget!

This is meaningless. These programs take years, if not decades. There will be a new administration in 3 years, at which point the budget, and Artemis program, will be cut back again.

But does the Senate *fund* NASA to do this…?

Good thing they just fired all those people

A smart person who wins the race doesn’t say „wanna go again“ unless they really want to lose.

During Apollo the NASA budget was around 4% of the federal budget. Nowadays it’s 0.4%. How does the “US Senate” expects NASA to do anything with no money?