The House on Tuesday passed a fiscal year 2015 NASA authorization bill that is almost identical to the one approved last year by the House, but not taken up by the Senate.
House Space, Science and Technology (SST) Committee Ranking Member Eddie Johnson (D-Texas) said in a statement the bill was passed under suspension of the rules. The bill did not go through the traditional markup and subcommittee vote process and instead went straight to the House floor, where it passed via voice vote. The bill, H.R. 810, authorizes $18 billion in funding consistent with the Consolidated and Further Appropriations Act of 2015, according to a statement from the House SST Republicans.
One significant provision in this bill is direction that NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew vehicle serve as an “alternative means of delivery” for crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). There are currently two companies performing Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) mission to ISS: Orbital ATK [OA] and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). There are also two companies under contract for Commercial Crew: SpaceX and Boeing [BA].