With the signing of the Omnibus Appropriations Act for FY2009 ( H.R. 1105 , P.L. 111-5 ) on March 11, 2009, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was funded at $17.78 billion for the fiscal year. Of that total, $5.76 billion was allocated to Space Operations, which include the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. For FY2008, NASA had received $5.53 billion for Space Operations. As NASA continued to fly Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station, the agency awaited the announcement of a new administrator to replace Michael Griffin, who resigned in January. On March 11 President Obama said he would appoint a new NASA director soon, and that one of biggest tasks of the new director would be "shaping a mission for NASA that is appropriate for the 21 st Century." NASA launched its first space station, Skylab, in 1973. Three crews were sent to live and work there in 1973-1974. It remained in orbit, unoccupied, until it reentered Earth's atmosphere in July 1979, disintegrating over Australia and the Indian Ocean. Skylab was never intended to be permanently occupied, but the goal of a permanently occupied space station with crews rotating on a regular basis, employing a reusable space transportation system (the space shuttle) was high on NASA's list for the post-Apollo years following the moon landings. Budget constraints forced NASA to choose to build the space shuttle first. The first launch of the shuttle was in April 1981. When NASA declared the shuttle "operational" in 1982, it was ready to initiate the space station program. In his January 25, 1984 State of the Union address, President Reagan directed NASA to develop a permanently occupied space station within a decade, and to invite other countries to join. On July 20, 1989, the 20 th anniversary of the first Apollo landing on the Moon, President George H. W. Bush voiced his support for the space station as the cornerstone of a long-range civilian space program eventually leading to bases on the Moon and Mars. That "Moon/Mars" program, the Space Exploration Initiative, was not greeted with enthusiasm in Congress, primarily due to budget concerns, and ended in FY1993, although the space station program continued. President Clinton dramatically changed the character of the space station program in 1993 by adding Russia as a partner to this already international endeavor. That decision made the space station part of the U.S. foreign policy agenda to encourage Russia to abide by agreements to stop the proliferation of ballistic missile technology, and to support Russia economically and politically as it transitioned from the Soviet era. The Clinton Administration strongly supported the space station within certain budget limits. The International Space Station program thus began in 1993, with Russia joining the United States, Europe, Japan, and Canada. An Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) established three phases of space station cooperation. The IGA is a treaty in all the countries except the United States, where it is an Executive Agreement. It is implemented through Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) between NASA and its counterpart agencies. During Phase I (1995-1998), seven U.S. astronauts remained on Russia's space station Mir for long duration (several month) missions with Russian cosmonauts, Russian cosmonauts flew on the U.S. space shuttle seven times, and nine space shuttle missions docked with Mir to exchange crews and deliver supplies. Repeated system failures and two life-threatening emergencies on Mir in 1997 raised questions about whether NASA should leave more astronauts on Mir , but NASA decided Mir was sufficiently safe to continue the program. ( Mir was deorbited in 2001.) Phases II and III involve construction of the International Space Station itself, and blend into each other. Phase II began in 1998 and was completed in July 2001; Phase III is underway. President George W. Bush, prompted in part by the February 2003 space shuttle Columbia tragedy, made a major space policy address on January 14, 2004, directing NASA to focus its activities on returning humans to the Moon and eventually sending them to Mars. Included in this "Vision for Space Exploration" was a decision to retire the space shuttle in 2010. The President said the United States would fulfill its commitments to its space station partners. Under the original ISS schedule, assembly of the station would have been completed in 2002, with operations at least through 2012. President Bush restructured the space station program in 2001, and left it unclear when assembly would be completed. NASA briefing charts in March 2003 showed space station operations possibly continuing until 2022. Under President Bush's January 2004 "Vision for Space Exploration," however, NASA plans to complete its utilization of ISS in 2016 (though the other partners may continue to use it after that time). ISS segments have been and continue to be launched into space on U.S. or Russian launch vehicles and assembled in orbit. The space station is composed of a multitude of modules, solar arrays to generate electricity, remote manipulator systems, and other elements. (Details can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html .) The U.S. space shuttle has been the major vehicle taking crews and cargo back and forth to ISS, but the shuttle system encountered difficulties after the Columbia disaster and did not resume flights until 2006. Russian Soyuz spacecraft are also used to take crews to and from ISS, and Russian Progress spacecraft deliver cargo, but cannot return anything to Earth, since it is not designed to survive reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. A Soyuz is always attached to the station as a lifeboat in case of an emergency. "Expedition" crews have occupied ISS on a 4-6 month rotating basis since November 2000. Originally the crews had three members (two Russians and one American, or two Americans and one Russian). Crew size was temporarily reduced to two (one American, one Russian) while the U.S. shuttle was grounded in order to reduce resupply requirements. The number of astronauts who can live on the space station is limited in part by how many can be returned to Earth in an emergency by lifeboats docked to the station. Only Russian Soyuz spacecraft are available as lifeboats. Each Soyuz can hold three people, limiting crew size to three if only one Soyuz is attached. The plan is that crew size will grow to six once assembly is completed. Each Soyuz must be replaced every six months. The replacement missions are called "taxi" flights since the crews bring a new Soyuz up to ISS and bring the old one back to Earth. Therefore, under normal conditions, the long duration Expedition crews are regularly visited by taxi crews, and by the space shuttle bringing up additional ISS segments or exchanging Expedition crews. When the shuttle is unavailable, Expedition crews are taken back and forth on the "taxi" flights. In order to contract for Soyuz service to the ISS, NASA has needed an exemption from the Iran Nonproliferation Act (INA) ( P.L. 106 - 178 ), which banned U.S. payments to Russia in connection with the International Space Station (ISS) unless the U.S. President determined that Russia was taking steps to halt proliferation of nuclear weapons and missile technology to Iran. In 2005 Congress amended INA to exempt Soyuz flights to the ISS from the ban through 2011. It also extended the provisions of the INA to Syria and North Korea, and renamed it the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA). NASA asked for a legislated extension of this exemption, and waiver authority was extended until July 1, 2016, in the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2009 ( P.L. 110 - 329 ). (For details see CRS Report RL34477, Extending NASA's Exemption from the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act , by [author name scrubbed] and Mary Beth Nikitin.) From FY1994 to FY2001, the cost estimate for building ISS grew from $17.4 billion to about $25 billion. The $17.4 billion estimate did not include launch costs, operational costs after completion of assembly, civil service costs, or other costs. NASA estimated the program's life-cycle cost (all costs, including funding spent prior to 1993) from FY1985 toFY2012 at $72.3 billion. In 1998, GAO estimated the life-cycle cost at $95.6 billion (GAO/NSIAD-98-147). More recent, comparable, life-cycle estimates are not available from NASA or GAO. As costs continued to rise, Congress voted to legislate a $25 billion cap on development of the ISS program, plus $17.7 billion for associated shuttle launches, in the FY2000-FY2002 NASA authorization act ( P.L. 106 - 391 ). In January 2001, however, NASA announced that the cost would be over $30 billion, 72% above the 1993 estimate, and $5 billion above the legislated cap. NASA explained that program managers had underestimated the complexity of building and operating the station. The Bush Administration signaled it supported the legislated cap, would not provide additional funds, and NASA would have to find what it needed from within its Human Space Flight account. In February 2001, the Bush Administration announced it would cancel or defer some ISS hardware to stay within the cap and control space station costs. The decision truncated construction of the space station at a stage the Administration called "core complete."