Article Posted on : - Sep 30, 2010

A file photo.

WASHINGTON (AFP): The US Congress has approved NASA's 2011 budget, which provides funds for the development of commercial spaceflights and an additional space shuttle flight.

The House of Representatives voted 304 to 118 to approve the budget on Wednesday in a final series of votes before Congress recesses for the November 2 mid-term elections.

The measure, a compromise between House and Senate versions of the bill which now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature, would provide USD 60 billion for the space agency through 2013.

It funds one more launch of the shuttle after two that are currently scheduled. It also anticipates helping the private sector develop commercial launchers to put astronauts and other payloads into orbit.

Funding also would go for starting to develop a new heavy launcher, which would be crucial for sending astronauts to an asteroid of Mars, but also the International Space Station.

USD seven billion have been earmarked for work aimed at making the new heavy launcher operational by 2016.

President Barack Obama's space program calls for retiring the space shuttle after the final two flights in November and February. After that, the US would depend on the Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to carry US astronauts to the ISS until a successor the shuttle is developed.

The administration did not plan on beginning work on a heavy launcher before 2015.