No money – no problem: Atlantis back in 2009.

Photo:NASA/Jack Pfaller

NASA has added one more Space Shuttle flight to the schedule of launches before its veteran fleet is retired, despite not actually having any money at the moment to pay for the mission.

Yesterday the agency announced it would try to send the Atlantis shuttle up to the International Space Station on 28 June this year. As a NASA statement notes, it has been ‘maintaining the capability’ for the mission since December and a 2010 act does authorize it to conduct this final shuttle mission.

But Congress never signed off on the couple of hundred million dollars that the flight would cost.

AP quotes NASA spokesman Michael Curie as saying, “We’re optimistic that the funding will be there.” But Curie could not say where it might appear from.

NASA Watch’s Keith Cowing suggests this technique might be useful in reducing the cost of other expensive space agency projects, such as the over-budget Mars Science Laboratory and the over-budget James Webb telescope:

Amazing. NASA has now learned how to prepare for a shuttle flight – something that used to cost money – with money it does not have. I hope the MSL and Webb folks stop by for a copy of the secret recipe SOMD [Space Operations Mission Directorate] is using.