House panel OKs billions for space plan

The Space Launch Initiative, based in Huntsville, got a $729 million budget from a House subcommittee; human spaceflight got $6.13 billion. It's a big boost for Space Launch, which is supposed to develop the successor vehicle to the space shuttle. Maybe it's my inner SF reader talking, but it's potentially the most important thing in the budget. They're also working on nuclear-powered spacecraft, which as you can imagine will make NASA very popular.