The AIAA announced Monday that an “unprecedented
coalition of nearly two dozen U.S. aerospace corporations” has signed off on a letter asking for more money for NASA. Aerospace companies, asking Congress to give NASA more money? Not exactly a surprising message. The letter cites both the joint funding resolution that cut several hundred million dollars from the proposed FY07 budget and the planned FY08 budget that falls $1.4 billion below the authorized level. Their recommendation: Congress should fund NASA at the authorized level for FY08.
Looking at the letter, it is clear that the industry is trying to create as united a front as possible. The signatories cover a wide range, from industry giants (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman) to smaller, more obscure companies (Barrios, SGT) to entrepreneurial up-and-comers (Rocketplane Kistler, SpaceX), to even one company that will soon no longer be an independent entity (Swales, which is being acquired by ATK). All, of course, have significant dealings with NASA.
Another interesting fact about the letter is that it is addressed to a single member of Congress: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, ranking member of the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee. The press release doesn’t explain why the letter was sent only to Hutchison, a member of the minority party who already strongly supports NASA. Why not (also) send it to someone like Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who, like Hutchison, is a strong advocate for NASA but also happens to chair the appropriations subcommittee with oversight of NASA? Or, if they really wanted to be daring, send it to someone who is powerful but not particularly supportive of NASA, someone like House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey…
I suspect that the letter was sent to a large number of appropriators, perhaps even all of them, in both House and Senate. the AIAA simply scanned in the one for KBH.
These contractors have much more influence than Nasa or its administrator. The real crunch will come when these contractors start talking about layoffs in each members district as the shuttle winds down and Orion limps along.
I just read through the letter and at the very bottom list all the members of congress who they sent it to. it was about 21 people.
My bad. Yes, the very end of the letter does contain a complete, and logical, list of recipients, as Mr. Vetter notes. What is odd, though, is why Sen. Hutchison is the principal recipient; even the press release release linked to above states that the industry leaders who signed the letter “wrote Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison”.