NASA Reauthorization Act of 2024

Summary · Congressional Research Service (nonpartisan)

This bill reauthorizes through FY2025 the programs and activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It also establishes and revises various NASA programs relating to space exploration, research, and technology. For example, the bill directs NASA to continue its efforts to support crewed lunar landings and Mars explorations, including through partnerships with the private sector (i.e., the Moon to Mars and Artemis programs). NASA must report on certain details of these partnerships, including the respective amounts of government and private sector contributions. The bill also provides for private sector involvement with the International Space Station (ISS), including authorizing private sector missions to the ISS to advance commercial spaceflight and requiring NASA to partner with the private sector to support the eventual deorbiting of the ISS. In addition, NASA must continue to support improvements to space technology, including lunar communications. NASA must also evaluate and conduct research programs relating to experimental aircrafts, hypersonic research, and unmanned aircraft systems (i.e., drones). The bill also establishes certain requirements relating to earth science and monitoring, including requiring NASA to evaluate greenhouse gas detection capabilities and to distribute relevant earth science data to the agricultural industry. It also provides statutory authority for the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program, which supports NASA's earth science research. Finally, the bill requires several reports and evaluations of NASA programs and policies, including an external review of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program and a report on NASA's early cost estimates for missions.