Weldon to Introduce Legislation to Keep Shuttle Flying

December 18, 2007 at 10:24 am | Posted in Space Law | Leave a comment

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty
Congressman Dave Weldon (R-FL) announced that he would be introducing a bill that would keep the Space Shuttle flying until Orion is ready to replace it. The bill calls for $1.6 billion to speed the development of Orion, $819 to reimburse NASA for costs after Columbia, $1.2 billion to help out science projects cut in recent years, and “such sums as necessary” to keep the shuttle flying two missions a year until Orion is developed (Space Politics). This comes to a total of about $10 billion.

It should be noted that this is an authorizing bill and not an appropriations bill, so the funds are not garaunteed unless granted in an appropriations bill. Res Communis’ research shows that the bill has not yet been introduced.

Weldon ( as well as others) has been active recently with a conference amendment to keep the Shuttle flying (Res Communis).