The $636 billion military spending bill for fiscal year 2010, signed into law by President Barack Obama on Monday, Dec. 21, includes $7.2 million for New Mexico Tech programs.

The spending bill also includes: $128 billion in funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; a 3.4 percent pay raise for military personal; a two-month extension of unemployment benefits for those who are suffering from long-term joblessness; health care subsidies for those who are out of work; and money for highways and transit systems.

Playas Training and Research Center will get $3.2 million to establish a joint training and experimentation site for the National Guard Bureau.

Established in 2004, at a once-deserted town near the border of Mexico, the Playas facility has been used to train first responders, anti-terrorism units and law enforcement personnel. The new funding will be used to train National Guard units in coordination with other agencies.

"It provides us with another business line," Tech Vice President of Research and Development Van Romero said during a Dec. 21 phone interview. "It expands the portfolio at Playas."

Another $4 million was included in the defense spending bill for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory.

Romero explained that the amount given for the observatory was part of ongoing funding.

"MRO is done in phases," Romero said. "Two of three phases are complete."

An interferometer telescope will be completed during the next phase, which will have a resolution more than 100 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

The new telescope at the MRO will be used primarily to study stellar and planetary formation, astrophysical processes including mass-loss and mass transfer, and the nature of black hole environments in other galaxies.

"This will allow us to break new ground," said Romero.

MRO is located on top of South Baldy Ridge in the Magdalena Mountains and is composed of two telescope facilities.

A 2.4-meter telescope — which went into operation September 2008 — was designed to track fast-moving objects, such as satellites and meteors. The telescope also has the capacity to track missiles.

Contact Ether Ashe