Space Politics

A routine markup session by the House Science Committee’s on a long-awaited NASA authorization bill took a surprisingly partisan turn on Wednesday. While there is typically a strong sense of bipartisan cooperation among committee members, during Wednesday’s hearing Democratic members expressed their opposition to the authorization bill, HR 3070. Reps. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Bart […]

Last week I noted an Iowa newspaper column that attempted to pit NASA against funding for drug enforcement measures. Sunday’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review featured a letter to the editor in a similar vein:

I don’t understand their decision not to transfer funds from a space program to a program that provides grants to state and local […]

First, the Senate Approprations Committee approved unanimously the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill. The press release announcing the bill’s approval offers no details, but since the NASA overall budget number remains unchanged at $16.4 billion, it seems the full committee did little or nothing to change the subcommittee’s work earlier this week.

What did […]

The ongoing debate on whether NASA should adopt a shuttle-derived or EELV-derived approach for a future heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLLV) or CEV launch vehicle has made its way into the FY06 Defense Department appropriations bill, according to a report in Thursday’s Deseret News. The Salt Lake City newspaper reported that Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) “also […]

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a markup hearing this Thursday at 10 am to handle, among other matters, a proposed NASA authorization bill. The committee’s science and space subcommittee has not held its own hearing on the bill, which doesn’t even have a bill number yet.

While earlier reports indicated that the House Science […]