Space weaponization presentation

MAtthew Hoey, a research associate at the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, passed along a note that the slides from a presentation he gave on “United States Military Space Systems – The Road Ahead” last month are now online. Hoey argues that the “monopoly” held by the “Big 6″ defense contractors (Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, […]

Hall eyes Science Committee chair

The Dallas Morning News reports that Congressman Ralph Hall hopes to succeed Rep. Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the House Science Committee. Boehlert will have to step down from the chairmanship of the committee after the 2006 elections because of term limits on committee chairs. Hall, a longtime Democrat who switched to the Republican Party […]

Local news takes on NASA

KTVT-TV, a CBS affiliate in Dallas-Ft. Worth, turned its investigative lens on NASA in a report that aired Monday night. Reporter Tracy Rowlett used a number of GAO studies (such as its recent review of NASA’s aircraft fleet) and interviews with the head of Citizens Against Government Waste (which has previously been critical of NASA) […]

Garneau update

As expected, the Canadian House of Commons passed a no-confidence motion on Monday, triggering a new election in January. Canadian Press reports that current Canadian PM Paul Martin, after making the official call for a new election Tuesday morning, is expected to immediately hit the campaign trail. One of Martin’s first stops will be in […]

More milspace woes, part deux

Monday’s edition of Aerospace Daily features an article with an ominous headline: “DOD Nears Decision On Fate Of SBIRS-High”. Is the missile early warning satellite program, which has faced its share of problems like many other Pentagon satellite efforts, facing a real threat of cancellation? Probably not. Its cost overruns have triggered a Nunn-McCurdy review […]

More milspace woes

In this week’s issue of The Space Review, Taylor Dinerman examines the NPOESS weather satellite system, a program whose problems have been discussed here recently. Dinerman makes a good point in that much of NPOESS’ woes can be traced to the program’s technologies, which are far ahead of previous systems. As he puts it, “Why […]

From astronaut to MP?

In the US it’s not unheard of for former astronauts to become politicians, with John Glenn the best-known but not only example. A former Canadian astronaut appears set to follow in their footsteps: the Globe and Mail reports that Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space and president of the Canadian Space Agency, is expected […]

Thanksgiving indigestion

That’s what some people might be experiencing even before digging into the turkey and stuffing today, after reading a front-page article (above the fold) in today’s Washington Post about the budget problems facing NASA. (Thanks to the wonders of syndication, this article also appeared in a number of other newspapers today, and will likely be […]

Signed, sealed, delivered

It’s official: the President signed into law yesterday both HR 2862, the appropriations bill that includes NASA, and S.1713, the Iran Nonproliferation Amendments Act of 2005, which allows NASA to purchase ISS hardware and services from Russia.

JWST delay

Space News reports in its latest edition (in an article freely available at SPACE.com) that NASA has decided to deal with the cost overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program by delaying the mission rather than cutting it. JWST is now set for launch in 2013, two years later than previously planned. It […]