“Within the funds provided for climate data, the bill provides $74 million for restoring important climate sensors to several satellites – GOES-R and NPOESS. There is no doubt about the need and importance of satellites, but they are an expensive proposition. To that end, the bill includes direction to the OSTP to develop a plan for commercial purchase of weather, environmental and space weather data.”

The original sentence in section 504: “It is further the sense of Congress that suborbital flight activities, including the use of sounding rockets, aircraft, and high-altitude balloons, offer valuable opportunities to advance science, train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and provide opportunities for participants in the programs to acquire skills in systems engineering and systems integration that are critical to maintaining the Nation’s leadership in space programs.”

For any Presidential candidates thinking about using large chunks of NASA funding for educational programs, this Sense of Congress gives a better approach that helps both education and space at the same time:

“It is the sense of Congress that NASA’s educational programs are important sources of inspiration and hands-on learning for the next generation of engineers and scientists and should be supported. In that regard, programs such as EarthKAM, which brings NASA directly into American classrooms by enabling students to talk directly with Astronauts aboard International Space Station and take photographs of Earth from space, and NASA involvement in robotics competitions for students of all levels, are particularly worthy undertakings and NASA should support them and look for additional opportunities to engage students through NASA’s space and aeronautics activities.”