Washington ? NASA would get a funding increase to $16.8 billion next year despite a presidential budget that squeezes many domestic programs, under a proposal released Monday.

NASA touted the increase as 3.2 percent, but that does not include money for Hurricane Katrina repairs. When the actual NASA total for last year, including the hurricane money, is counted, NASA would get about a 1 percent increase for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2006. The space funding is part of a $2.7 trillion budget plan by President Bush that goes next to Congress.

“NASA has been favored by the administration, but it’s still a very tough environment,” said agency head Mike Griffin.

Much of NASA’s attention – and money – will be focused on Bush’s ambitious plan to return to the moon and prepare for a manned mission to Mars. But the budget for next year and plans for coming years show that project will eat into many other NASA programs, including some favored by Congress.

A Mars exploration program that involves unmanned missions was planned to get a large increase but instead will stay steady with about one mission every 26 months, according to NASA officials.

But the budget does include funding for a pet project of Congress – using a space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble telescope. The shuttle budget will drop from $4.77 billion this year to $4.06 billion next year, under the proposal.

NASA has planned 16 more shuttle flights to assemble the International Space Station and one for the Hubble before the shuttle is retired in 2010. The station is scheduled to be replaced sometime around 2012 to 2014 by a new spacecraft that will help ferry astronauts to the moon. And NASA said it will look for commercial companies to bid to ferry cargo and people to the station during the gap before the Crew Exploration Vehicle is ready.