Russian reaction to the national space policy

It’s a little late (nearly two months after the policy’s quiet release), but the AP, citing an Interfax article, reported Wednesday that a key Russian official criticized the new US national space policy, calling it “the first step toward a serious deepening of the military confrontation in space.” Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of Roskosmos, added […]

Allies for Centennial Challenges

A Space Frontier Foundation press release Monday announced that the Space Exploration Alliance, a loose coalition of over a dozen space organizations, along with the Space Frontier Foundation and the X Prize Foundation, are all asking Congress to restore funding for NASA’s Centennial Challenges prize program in the still-incomplete FY2007 budget. “We call on the […]

Mars or bust?

On his excellent blog, Selenian Boondocks, Jon Goff seems surprised when he finds that the current NASA exploration architecture is really geared towards Mars. That revelation came from a discussion thread on NASA SpaceFlight.com’s forums, where one of the key authors of the ESAS study, Doug Stanley, makes the point that the architecture’s key elements […]

More about space weapons and arms control

I noted here an article two weeks ago by James Oberg that took on the issue of space weapons and arms control, noting the problems of verification and definition regarding such systems. This week’s issue features an article by Nader Elhefnawy of the University of Miami that takes a different look at the same issue. […]

From the Hammer to Hoyer

When Tom DeLay was House Majority Leader a few years ago, he certainly did his part to support NASA, including an effort just as the FY2005 budget was being finalized in conference to win full funding for NASA. DeLay is gone, of course, and the incoming majority leader is Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Hoyer’s politics are […]

If children are the future, uh-oh

Last weekend Washington was host to the Princeton Model Congress, where over 1,000 high school students from around the country come to DC to debate issues and pass “legislation” about them. (Think Model UN but with also a model president, Supreme Court, and press corps, but, in a shocking departure from reality, apparently no model […]

Space policy and space tourism legislation

A couple articles of note in this week’s issue of The Space Review:

Ryan Zelnio argues that the Bush Administration needs to develop a new space policy for the commercial satellite industry. Such a policy would focus in large part on export control issues, including directing the State Department to increase the workforce devoted to […]

A lower profile for space in Florida’s House

Florida Today reported this weekend that the Florida House of Representatives is disbanding a committee devoted to space issues. The House Spaceport and Technology Committee had been created just two years ago, but the incoming speaker, Marco Rubio, decided to eliminate it as part of his “philosophy of less government and consolidation,” according to one […]

Another appropriations reorganization?

Remember all the hubbub two years ago when Republicans led by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay revamped the various appropriations subcommittees? As part of that reorganization NASA went from being part of the VA-HUD-independent agencies subcommittee to part of the Science, State, Justice, and Commerce subcommittee. (DeLay’s desire to put NASA in a more favorable […]

Another take on space weapons

In an essay in the online publication World Politics Watch, Richard Weitz reviews the international controversy about space weaponization triggered by the release of the new national space policy last month. The key section of his essay is the following:

The major source of tension between the United States and other nations results from the […]