NASA issued a press release Wednesday noting that legislatures in seven states have passed resolutions in support of the Vision for Space Exploration. In three cases—Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi—the resolutions were passed by both houses of their respective legislatures, while in three others—Kansas, Ohio (which was previously noted here), and Texas—only the state senates passed such resolutions. (In the case of the seventh state, California, both the Assembly and Senate have passed slightly different resolutions.) The press release doesn’t provide specifics on the resolutions, but here are links to the various resolutions:
- Alabama: SJR 100
- California: AJR 86
- Kansas: SR 1868
- Louisiana: HCR 286 and SCR 158
- Mississippi: HC 1
- Ohio: SCR 32
- Texas: SR 196
A couple of notes on these resolutions:
- If you read the Alabama and Louisiana resolutions, you will find that the two contain very similar language, varying primarily with different localizations (Marshall versus Michoud). The Louisiana resolution passed in early June, about a month after the Alabama one; it’s not clear if the Louisiana one simply copied the Alabama one or if legislators in both states got similar “talking points” from an outside source.
- If you compare the Assembly and Senate versions of California’s AJR 86, you’ll see that about the only significant difference between the two is whether to locate the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena or neighboring La Canada-Flintridge. JPL does sort of straddle the boundary between the two cities, although it has a Pasadena mailing address.
- All the states that have passed resolutions, except for Kansas, have NASA centers or related facilities in their states. Florida, interestingly, did not appear to pass or even have anyone introduce a similar resolution.
Of course, the larger question is whether such resolutions do any good. They probably don’t do much good, but they at least make state legislators (and NASA) feel good.
If the states feel that strong with support for their given Nasa facility. Then it is time for some strong arming of there individual state representatives into having a common voice heard in congress from those specific people that are each states representatives in the House and in Congress.
These developments in the State Legislatures of these various states fits in well with my perceptions that other than the traditional proponents of space activity can and should let their voices be heard. There is plenty of room for other groups to speak out on the need ot support VSE, including counties, municipalities, the Jaycees, various union groups who have a stake in space development, and doubtless many others. Keep up the good work folks, and spread the word about space.