WASHINGTON, DC (LOOTPRESS) – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced West Virginia University (WVU) will receive $800,000 from NASA for the establishment of a Space Instrument Development Facility. This funding was made available through a Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) request made by Senator Capito, and will provide the needed infrastructure to complete the facility. In total, Senator Capito secured $241,135,000 in direct spending measures for initiatives and projects across West Virginia through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 appropriations omnibus package.
“This is great news for WVU, and will serve to further increase the tradition and involvement that West Virginia has in our nation’s space exploration,” Senator Capito said. “WVU has established itself as a premier research institution, and the addition of a spacecraft development facility on campus will help grow the research and development capabilities in Morgantown. I’m thrilled to use my role on the Senate Appropriations Committee to deliver for WVU and increase opportunities available to our students.”
“Thanks to Senator Capito, WVU is poised to play important roles in a variety of planned and potential future NASA missions,” Dr. Earl Scime, Jefimenko Professor of Physics and Astronomy, said. “With this facility, WVU researchers will be able to build, test, and then fly new instruments in space – greatly expanding our potential roles in these missions. Without this resource, we simply would not be competitive for such new projects and our students would not get the experience of being able to directly build space instrumentation.”
