Senate directs NASA to choose another company to build a lunar lander

This is largely political showmanship. (Of course, what else does anyone expect from Congress?) $110M is not nearly enough to finance a second development program, and of course the committee knows this. And even if NASA were to request an appropriate (much larger) amount, it's dubious that Congress would grant it. Congress would love to kill off the SpaceX contract and give tons of money to Blue Origin and Boeing, but there's so little logic to that, given the performance of those companies, that even Congress can't quite bring itself to say so out loud. So they scold NASA, throw them a bone, and pretend they've taken bold action. This silly melodrama surely hasn't played out yet...

So they're only giving them another $110M (2.5%?) to support a second award for the Human Landing Systems contract.

Text from the draft appropriations bill [1]:

> The Committee notes that in fiscal year 2021, NASA projected that the Human Landing System [HLS] would need $4,388,100,000 in fiscal year 2022. However, the fiscal year 2022 request before the Committee is $1,195,000,000. Given that request, NASA’s rhetoric of blaming Congress and this Committee for the lack of resources needed to support two HLS teams rings hollow. The Committee’s—and NASA’s—experience with both Commercial Cargo and Commercial Crew was that even with lofty ambitions, milestones were often not met in the first years of a milestone-based program.

> The Committee believed, in providing resources for fiscal year 2021, that the resources would support early work for two teams. The Committee believes having at least two teams providing services using the Gateway should be the end goal of the current development program. To that end, the Committee provides no less than $1,295,000,000, an increase of $100,000,000 above the budget request, for HLS. Using this funding, NASA is expected to ensure redundancy and competition, including robust support for research, development, testing, and evaluation for no fewer than two HLS teams. The Committee expects real investments in development rather than additional studies. Within 30 days of enactment of this act, NASA shall deliver a plan to the Committee and post it on its website that explains how NASA will comply with this direction, including the resources needed for fiscal years 2023 through 2026 to execute the plan. NASA is expected to request such resources in future year budgets. In order to support HLS program development, no less than the requested level for the Lunar Lander office is provided.

> The Committee provides $4,128,246,000 for Space Operations, which is $140,046,000 above the fiscal year 2021 enacted level and $110,846,000 above the budget request. The Space Operations account supports the International Space Station [ISS] and the supporting functions required to conduct operations in space at up to the full requested level. The ISS is a complex of research laboratories in LEO in which American, Russian, and international partner astronauts conduct unique scientific and technological investigations in a microgravity environment.

[1] https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CJSRept_...