Space Politics
Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway…
Archive for June, 2004
June 29, 2004 at 9:19 am · Filed under Campaign '04
The Kerry campaign issued a media advisory Monday about an upcoming event with Sally Ride:
On Tuesday, June 29 at 1:30 p.m. EDT, former astronaut and the first woman in space Sally Ride will hold a conference call with reporters to discuss new Kerry proposals to encourage more women and minorities to pursue careers in science and math. Kerry will unveil the proposals tomorrow morning in a speech focused on expanding opportunity in America by strengthening education and lifelong learning - keys to success in the American economy.
Not really space policy related, but it does suggest that perhaps the Kerry campaign could use a space history refresher course. (Sally Ride was the first American woman in space…)
June 28, 2004 at 1:38 pm · Filed under Campaign '04
As noted in the comments to the previous entry, some news articles, like this Information Week report, claim that Kerry is backing a budget increase for NASA. As the article puts it, “Kerry also said he would increase funding for the National Science Foundation, NASA, National Institutes of Health, Energy Department, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology…” However, if you actually look at the plan itself, you’ll see something subtly different:
John Kerry will boost support for the physical sciences and engineering by increasing research investments in agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Increasing “research investments” is not necessarily the same as increasing overall agency budgets: funding could simply be shifted from operational to research programs, for example. That snippet is also the only section of the nine-page document that specifically mentions NASA.
However, later in the same document Kerry comes out strongly in favor of one popular instrument of space commercialization advocates, prizes:
Prizes have a number of advantages as a tool for stimulating technological innovation compared to traditional grants and contracts. For example, they allow the government to set a goal, while allowing researchers and entrepreneurs to pursue different strategies for reaching that goal. The private sector’s X Prize illustrates the power of this approach. This prize has captured the public imagination, and encouraged two-dozen teams of rocket scientists from around the world to develop reusable spaceships. The Kerry plan would provide every science agency with the authority to establish prizes to foster technological advances.
While this doesn’t specifically mention NASA, this suggests that regardless of the fate of the Vision for Space Exploration under a Kerry Administration, the Centennial Challenges program would stand a good chance to continue.
June 26, 2004 at 1:14 pm · Filed under Congress
The Space Transportation Association has announced that it will be hosting a breakfast on Thursday, July 8, with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) as the featured speaker. (The details are not yet on the STA’s web site, but registration begins at 8am with DeLay scheduled to speak at 9am; the breakfast will be at the Capitol Hill Club and cost $30.) DeLay is scheduled to discuss the Vision for Space Exploration, presumably focusing on what he and his colleagues will be doing to push it through this year. His speech will also come around the time the House version of the NASA authorization legislation is scheduled to be introduced.
June 25, 2004 at 6:25 pm · Filed under Other
I suspect many, if not most, Americans are blissfully unaware that there’s a national election in Canada on Monday. Universe Today notes that the Mars Society of Canada sent questionnaires to representatives of the major parties in the weeks ahead of the election, asking for their stand on space issues, including funding for the Canadian Space Agency. The ruling Liberal Party, as well as the Green Party, would keep CSA’s funding at its current level (about $300 million Canadian or US$225 million a year); the New Democrat Party would support CSA but only in peaceful ventures. (Bloc Quebecois, in a French-language response, declined to take any position on space policy.)
June 25, 2004 at 1:26 pm · Filed under Other
The Space Exploration Alliance (SEA) has added several additional member organizations in recent days, bringing the total up to 21. In addition to the Moon Society, which announced its membership in SEA earlier this month, the new groups include:
Some of these organization are pretty obscure: Global Space Travelers is an organization being set up by Jake Garn to serve as something like the Association of Space Explorers for non-professional astronauts; he announced it at a conference in DC back in December but nothing much has happened with it since then. I don’t know if there really are very many more organizations that could join SEA at this point.
Interestingly, I could find no formal announcement of these new organizations from the SEA itself: I found out about it in an email from ProSpace, one of the member organizations, promoting next month’s Moon-Mars Blitz. It would be useful for the SEA to set up a simple web site with some basic information about the group and its members.
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June 24, 2004 at 5:01 pm · Filed under Other
The California State Assembly last week passed a resolution in support of the Vision for Space Exploration. Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR) 86, introduced last month by Assemblywoman Sally Leiber (D-Mountain View), calls on the US Congress to fully fund the proposed NASA FY2005 budget. The text of the resolution calls on the old standbys for supporting the exploration plan: the nation’s history of exploration, spinoffs, and economic impacts (nationally and within California). The full assembly passed the resolution 78-0 on June 17; it has since gone to the California Senate. The California Space Authority has worked up some talking points in support of the bill (although someone should tell them the institution that operates JPL is “Caltech”, not “CalTech University”).
This is at least the second case of a state legislature passing a resolution supporting the exploration plan: last month the Ohio Senate unanimously passed a similar resolution. I haven’t heard of any other state legislatures that have made similar efforts, although Alabama, Florida, and Texas would be obvious candidates.
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June 23, 2004 at 12:45 pm · Filed under Campaign '04
An unlikely trio, no? On Monday Kerry kicked off what he said would be a week of focusing on “his plan to make the American economy stronger at home through scientific discovery, technology and innovation” with a speech in Denver. Kerry claimed that the current administration has politicized science (the campaign also issued a letter signed by 48 Nobel laureates endorsing that claim) and that a Kerry Administration “will put America back on the path of scientific excellence with a commitment to scientific research based on fact.” The response from Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt: “Only John Kerry would declare the country to be in scientific decline on a day when the country’s first privately funded space trip is successfully completed.” Critics, I think, would argue that SpaceShipOne has little to do with science per se, but it was an interesting comeback.
While the Kerry press release didn’t mention space specifically, it did note that a President Kerry “turn to our nation’s scientific leaders and make decisions based on expert advice.” This should sound familiar: he has previously said that he would “work with the best scientists” to determine in what direction NASA should proceed. Kerry plans more announcements “in the coming days” on science and technology policy, so perhaps he will share some more specifics.
June 23, 2004 at 7:41 am · Filed under Congress
This is late notice (I’m still catching up on work from being in Mojave the last couple days), but the House Science Committee has postponed a hearing scheduled for this morning on the Aldridge Commission’s final report. No reason for the cancellation, nor any information on a rescheduled date/time, was announced.
June 19, 2004 at 2:49 pm · Filed under Other
I refrained from commenting on the Aldridge Commission’s final report because so much had already been said about its (leaked) contents before its release. (Also, I have been very busy the last several days.) There were a few tidbits about the release I wanted to point out:
- If you haven’t already watched it, check out the introductory video shown at the beginning of the press conference (available in Real and Windows Media formats.) Recognize the narrator? Hint: Buzz Aldrin was not in attendance at the press conference.
- Perhaps the most telling comment during the press conference was made by Pete Aldridge, when he was asked why the commission recommended converting NASA centers into FFRDCs instead of closing one or more centers: “We thought about it a long time, and our view was that if we put into our report that the Congress and NASA should undertake a base realignment and closure action, the report would probably have burned on the first day.”
- In addition to handing out copies of the report (both hardcopies and CDs), there were some other giveaways at the press conference, like lapel pins with the commission’s logo. Also, bizarrely, were miniature astronauts: foam rubber figures, about 12 cm tall, of a spacesuited astronaut clutching a wrench in his (her?) right hand, with the NASA logo and URL on the backpack. (See pictures of the front and back of the figure.) At one point dozens of these figures were lined up on a table, like soldiers standing in formation, free for the taking. (There were also several on another table, standing guard over a stack of press releases from organizations like the NSS and Space Foundation endorsing the commission’s report.) Perhaps if we can miniaturize astronauts, we won’t need a heavy-lift launch vehicle…
June 19, 2004 at 12:54 pm · Filed under Other
John Marburger, the President’s science advisor, was the luncheon speaker Tuesday during NASA’s Centennial Challenges workshop in Washington. During his talk he touched upon the rationale for sending humans into space, and had some interesting comments:
We’re pretty sobered by the Columbia experience and the Challenger experience. They made it clear that we have to have a darn good reason to put humans up there… Governments do have a responsibility to protect people from dangers that they might not fully understand.
While Marburger didn’t explicitly mention private human spaceflight in that passage, the implication that a number of people in the audience (which had a number of representatives of the “alt.space” community) got was that Marburger wasn’t terribly fond of space tourism. I don’t know if that’s a fair assessment (or if Marburger has even given any thought to it), but that was the impression he left.
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