NASA would get slightly less of the federal budget this coming fiscal year.
President Obama sent a $19 billion request to Congress on Tuesday, down from $19.3 billion last year.
But experts say it should be enough to keep the agency's deep space and commercial ventures on the right course -- $8.5 billion would go to the Human Exploration Program.
That includes funding for the space agency's major projects like the Space Launch System and Orion Capsule which will send astronauts to Mars in the 2030's and money for the commercial crew program -- including for private companies like SpaceX and Boeing's efforts to ferry crew to the International Space Station.
Some $5 billion would be spent on operations to keep the ISS running.
Coverage from the Space Coast: Headlines, Launch Schedule, Resources
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden addressed a crowd at the agency's Langley Research Center in his State of NASA speech Tuesday.
"And because we are closer today than ever before in human history to sending American astronauts to the Red Planet. The state of our NASA is strong," Bolden said.
The President also proposed to keep paying the Russians $70 million for astronauts to hitch rides on Soyuz rockets bound for the ISS, until the U.S. can send our own people up on commercial rockets.
NASA has selected both Boeing and SpaceX to build spacecraft to send astronauts to the International Space Station.
Since the retirement of the space shuttle about five years ago, the United States has paid Russia more than $70 million for a seat to send astronauts to the space station.
The Republican-controlled Congress might have other plans for NASA, since they control the purse strings, though.
Congress is expected to vote on the 2017 fiscal budget in November.