Climate kerfuffle gets Congressional attention

The report in Sunday’s New York Times where NASA climate scientist James Hansen claims NASA is trying to prevent him from speaking about global warming has generated a reaction in Congress. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), chairman of the House Science Committee, issued a press release Monday that contained a copy of the letter he has […]

Japanese space policy insights

The successful launch of a remote sensing satellite might not seem like the type of event to trigger reflections on national space policy. Yet, in Japan, the launch last week of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS), or “Daichi”, generated some editorials expressing some optimism, yet also caution, about the Japanese space program. Both the […]

Griffin on the budget and the vision

Orlando Sentinel aerospace editor Michael Cabbage has started a new blog, The Write Stuff, and has kicked it off with the transcript of a recent interview with NASA administrator Michael Griffin. The interview covers a broad range of subjects, from the shuttle to space science. On the budget, Griffin has this to say:

NASA is […]

State space digest

Some updates about the status of various state space initiatives:

Florida: Governor Jeb Bush’s proposal to spend $55 million in the next budget on space initiatives, including efforts to lure CEV work to the state and planning for a new commercial spaceport, have met with a mixed reaction from local newspaper editorial boards. The Orlando […]

NASA budget tension

In just over a week the Bush Administration will unveil its proposed FY2007 budget, and as the Washington Post reports, that budget may not offer as much money for NASA as what Congress anticipated or authorized. There isn’t too many additional information in the article about what the administration is planning for NASA, compared to […]

Earmarks, be gone!

That’s the pledge of two Republican senators, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John McCain of Arizona, who have pledged to force their Senate colleagues to vote on every earmark in the spending bills that come up this year. Earmarks have become a significant issue for the NASA budget, with dozens of small projects inserted by […]

Griffin: Humans on Mars in (less than) 30 years

At last night’s premiere of the new IMAX movie Roving Mars at the National Air and Space Museum, NASM associate director Ted Maxwell noted that a few years ago the museum decided to retire To Fly!, the first IMAX movie the museum had shown, only to face criticism from museum patrons who specifically came to […]

A vote of confidence for alt.space

Thursday’s Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star features an op-ed by David Kerr, identified only as a “congressional aide”, that strongly endorses privatization of space exploration. After drawing analogies to the airmail efforts of the 1920s, Kerr cites SpaceShipOne as an example of the ingenuity and capabilities of smaller aerospace companies and then writes:

That’s why America’s […]

CEV/CLV changes: policy issues

The front-page article in this week’s issue of Space News (not available online) summarizes some technical changes NASA has made to the Crew Exploration Vehicle and Crew Launch Vehicle. Most of those changes have been publicized elsewhere, including a decision to drop the requirement for a methane/LOX engine for the CEV and lunar module ascent […]

Congressmen for Hubbard

While Scott Hubbard’s departure from the top job at NASA’s Ames Research Center wasn’t a surprise—rumors that he was resigning, or being pushed out, dated back over a month—what is interesting is the support he had among members of Congress. The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that four members of Congress from the Silicon Valley […]