Senate likes NASA more?

This report from Eun Kim in Washington:

WASHINGTON - The Senate apparently likes NASA more than the House.

The space agency would get $1.5 billion under the economic stimulus proposal released Monday by Senate Democrats.

NASA would only get $600 million under the House version released earlier this month, and none of it for manned space programs.

Outside of $500 million for Earth science missions, it's uncertain how the Senate proposal would allocate the NASA money.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said the Florida Democrat felt "grateful, because it's $900 million more than the House bill."

But U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez said he was disappointed that neither version includes funds to advance the manned space program.

"This bill is a great opportunity to put NASA back on track and shrink the manned space flight gap," the Florida Republican said in a statement. "I certainly hope we can modify the bill to move us in that direction."

In December, Martinez sent then Vice President-elect Joseph Biden a letter seeking at least $2 billion in the stimulus proposal to help NASA shrink the five-year gap predicted between the space shuttle's final mission next year and the first manned launch of its replacement.