The United States Congress has reaffirmed its support of NASA and its space exploration projects by including a $19.3 billion budget for the American space agency in the final version of its spending bill for the fiscal year 2016.

Senate and House appropriators released the omnibus spending bill on Wednesday following an extended round of negotiations. NASA is set to receive a budget of $19.285 billion to fund its projects throughout the fiscal year 2016.

Congress' allocation (PDF) for the space agency is $756 million more than the requested budget made by the Obama administration and the total stated in a House spending bill that was passed in August.

It was also around $1 billion more than what Senate appropriators included in a bill that was passed in June but was never approved by the Senate as a whole body.

The increased spending for NASA was made possible through a new budget bill approved in October that effectively raised the overall cap for spending for discretionary projects.

By funding a number of programs above the Obama administration's requested budget, appropriators in Congress were able to avoid long-drawn-out debates on spending priorities for government agencies.

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is one of the programs expected to benefit most from the increased spending. Appropriators included $2 billion in the allocation to fund the heavy-lift spacecraft, which is close to 50 percent above the administration's $1.36 billion budget request.

According to the omnibus spending bill's accompanying report, NASA is required to allocate not less than $85 million of the budget for the development of an "enhanced upper stage" that the space agency referred to in its plan for a manned SLS mission.

NASA's program for planetary sciences is also set to receive a $1.631 billion funding, which is $270 million more than the request made by the administration and $74 million more than the one included in the House bill.

Around $175 million of the total budget will be used for a mission to explore Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.

NASA is currently developing a space project known as Europa Clipper, which would send a spacecraft into Jupiter's orbit and carry out a series of flybys around Europa. The concept, however, does not include a lander as of the moment.

Photo: Ron Cogswell | Flickr

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