FLORIDA — NASA Administrator Bill Nelson gave the State of NASA address this afternoon. He confirmed the 2023 budget request the Biden Administration submitted to Congress.

It's $26 billion for NASA's 2023 budget — two billion more than last year.

Nelson says the budget would help the space agency continue to ignite innovation as they strive for humans to walk on Mars by 2040.

"It's a signal of support for our mission in a new era exploration and discovery," Nelson told workers at the Kennedy Space Center.

$7.6 billion would go to deep space exploration through the Artemis Program, to send Americans back to the moon by 2025.

The large Space Launch System rocket recently rolled out to Pad 39B at KSC.

It will remain on the pad until NASA performs its wet dress rehearsal which is set for this coming weekend.

A major milestone setting the table for the un-crewed Orion capsule launch. The first since Apollo 8 in 1968.

"Now the Apollo generation has passed the torch to the Artemis generation," Nelson said.

The lunar landings would act as a test bed for future human missions to Mars.

The budget would also include $1.4 billion in funding to continue helping the U.S. commercial space industry grow.

"And we know this is going to be another banner year, full of breakthroughs and discoveries," said Nelson.

Nelson also said the astronauts who will be the next to land on the moon will be announced by the end of this year.