The shrinking gap?

One of the leading rationales for increasing NASA’s budget, such as the proposed $1-billion increase the Senate approved earlier this month, has been to try and shorten the gap in US government human spaceflight access between the end of the shuttle program and the beginning of Orion flights. Earlier this year NASA administrator Mike Griffin […]

Ares/Orion hearing delayed

Tuesday’s scheduled hearing about the status of the Ares 1 and Orion programs has been postponed, according to an updated scheduled circulated late Friday by the House Science and Technology Committee. No makeup date for the hearing has been formally announced.

You can, though, still get your hearing fix for the week on Tuesday: the […]

House leadership willing to support NASA budget increase

The Democratic leadership of the House, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, now appears inclined to support the so-called “Mikulski miracle”, the $1 billion added by the Senate to the NASA budget in its version of the FY08 appropriations bill approved earlier this week. “In the House there’s some increased interest in keeping that $1 billion in […]

House passes anniversary resolutions

While the Senate was wrapping up work on appropriations legislation earlier this week, the House of Representatives was taking some time to pass a couple of anniversary resolutions related to NASA and the Space Age. On Tuesday the House passed H.Con.Res. 225, a resolution honoring the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Space Age […]

More good news and bad news for the NASA budget

The good news: the Senate finally passed the Commerce, Justice, and Science FY08 appropriations bill Tuesday after defeating an effort to transfer some money from the space agency. As the Houston Chronicle reports, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) introduced an amendment that would have transferred $150 million from NASA’s science, aeronautics, and exploration account to the […]

Ares/Orion hearing next week

The space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee has announced a hearing for next Tuesday, October 23, on “Status of the NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle and Crew Launch Vehicle Programs”. The two witnesses currently scheduled to testify are:

Dr. Richard J. Gilbrech, Associate Administrator, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA Ms. Cristina T. Chaplain, […]

Will the UK government endorse human spaceflight?

The British government will decide by next October whether to establish a government human spaceflight program, Flight International reported this week. The British National Space Centre will assess the costs and benefits associated with having an astronaut corps, either as part of ESA’s astronaut corps or as a more direct relationship with NASA, like Canada […]

Rudy’s planetary protection policy

Of all the potential space-related issues that can come up during a presidential campaign, how often do we overlook important topics like this:

Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani on Sunday said preparedness will be key for all crises, even an attack from outer space.

During a town hall meeting in Exeter [New Hampshire], a young questioner […]

Galileo’s future still uncertain

Efforts to develop an alternative funding plan for Galileo stalled yesterday stalled when European transport ministers failed to agree on a proposal to use over €2 billion in unused agricultural funds to over most of the funding shortfall created when the public-private partnership originally envisioned to pay for the satellite navigation system fell through this […]

Fighting for “Florida’s Space Frontier”

Yesterday Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) and state legislator Thad Altman met with Florida governor Charlie Crist and lieutenant governor Jeff Kottcamp to talk about the future of the space industry in the state (or, as a Tampa Bay TV station put it, “Florida’s Space Frontier”), with an eye towards mitigating the effects of the shuttle-CEV […]