In the same week a good-sized asteroid is expected to fly closer to the earth than the moon's orbit, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been allotted an annual budget that its top manager says will keep the agency "moving forward."

Released by the Obama Administration today, the federal government's Fiscal Year 2015 budget sets aside $17.5 billion for the space agency, which Administrator Charles Bolden asserts will push United States research "farther in the solar system" and usher in "a new era" of exploration.

"The president's funding plan for America's space program reaffirms the path we are on, and will keep us moving forward -- pushing farther in the solar system and leading the world in a new era of exploration," Bolden said, adding the budget "once again, affirms the bi-partisan strategic exploration plan agreed to with the Congress in 2010. It keeps us moving toward the missions and breakthroughs of tomorrow."

Bolden asserted the new infusion of cash will help NASA remain "on the same, steady path we have been following -- a stepping stone approach to send humans to Mars in the 2030s.

The agency's overall research plans include the launchings of an unprecedented five missions that will specifically study different aspects of Earth itself. The first of the series, NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission, launched last week.

As well, Bolden continued, NASA has the funding go-ahead for other missions, including the development of reusable space station supply vehicles with private U.S. companies and the ongoing construction of the next-generation James Webb space telescope.

"This budget ensures that the United States will remain the world's leader in space," said Bolden, and "keeps us on target to launch American astronauts from right here in the U.S.A. by 2017, ending our reliance on others to get into space and freeing us up to carry out even more ambitious missions beyond low-Earth orbit."

One of the space agency's research priorities will be asteroids, Bolden said, much like the 98-foot 2014 DX110, which is expected to pass within 217,000 miles of Earth Mar. 5, according to a report published by the Associated Press.

The moon is about 238,000 miles away from our planet.

Astronomers, the AP story says, have confirmed the asteroid, first discovered Feb. 11, will pose no threat, even though it will zip by so close to the earth's surface at speeds of over 32,000 mph.