WASHINGTON — The stopgap spending measure the U.S. Congress has vowed to pass to keep the federal government running through late March gives the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) budgetary leeway to keep two crucial civilian weather satellites on track for launch. But even with the additional flexibility, NOAA’s overall satellite acquisition budget stands to fall tens of millions of dollars short of what the agency requested for 2013.

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Dan Leone is the NASA reporter for SpaceNews, where he also covers other civilian-run U.S. government space programs and a growing number of entrepreneurial space companies. He joined SpaceNews in 2011.Dan earned a bachelor's degree in public communications...