Extra shuttle flight moves forward

In the midst of its wrangling over a financial bailout, the United States Senate did adopt a NASA measure last night to add one more shuttle flight to the manifest. There are several steps left in the process and President Bush's budget chiefs have said in the past they would veto any bill increasing NASA's budget or extending the shuttle beyond 2010. Here's the full report from correspondent Eun Kim in Washington ...

A bill that would add an extra flight to the space shuttle's agenda cleared the Senate late Thursday.

The measure, the NASA Authorization Act of 2008, would also authorize a $2.6 billion budget increase over what President Bush has proposed for the agency next year. That figure includes $1 billion to help accelerate the development of the shuttle's replacement.

The bill would authorize NASA to conduct an extra shuttle mission to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station.

The House passed a similar version of the bill earlier this year. The two versions will be reconciled before final passage.

The measure essentially is intended to provide a strong message to the next president when he takes office about Congressional support for NASA projects.