Space Politics
Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway…
Archive for October, 2007
October 24, 2007 at 12:40 am · Filed under NASA
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 said that the year-long continuing resolution that funded NASA in FY07 at FY06 levels created a six-month delay in Orion, pushing its introduction to service to as late as early 2015. Want to shorten the gap? Then increase funding for Ares 1 and Orion.
Or not. Florida Today reported Tuesday that NASA is planning on the first manned Orion flight in September 2013, with the ISS as the mission’s destination, although the first “operational” flight (however that’s defined) would still not be until 2015, after two more manned test flights. The article’s tone suggests that this is a change from previous plans, but that’s not entirely clear; also uncertain is the level of funding required to make this happen (such as whether this has factored in the extra billion dollars or if, as noted near the end of the article, it’s based on existing, relatively flat budget projections.)
October 19, 2007 at 7:03 pm · Filed under Congress
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 energy and environment subcommittee of the same committee is holding a hearing Tuesday afternoon on “GAO’s Report on the Status of NOAA’s Geostationary Weather Satellite Program”. Scheduled to testify are David Powner, Director of Information Technology Management Issues at the GAO; and Mary Ellen Kicza, Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services at NOAA.
October 18, 2007 at 1:03 pm · Filed under Congress, NASA
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 the CJS [Commerce, Justice, and Science] appropriations bill,” said Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), speaking at a Space Transportation Association breakfast on Capitol Hill Thursday morning. “The Speaker understands how important this is.” The House version of the bill, passed this summer, doesn’t have that extra $1 billion, so its immediate fate lies in the hand of the conference committee that will reconcile that and other differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. “There are some positive indications from the Speaker’s office and the appropriations committee” that the House would be favorably disposed to keeping the money in the final version of the bill, Udall said.
Udall was initially reticent to go into more details about why the House leadership now seemed willing to support the money, saying at one point that it simply “flat out makes sense to do this.” A member of the audience later said that Paul Carliner, a staffer on the Senate Appropriations Committee, worked with Rep. Nick Lampson (D-TX), and Lampson then approached Pelosi and got her to support the funding. Lampson, of course, is a big supporter of NASA and has JSC in his home district; he also has a tough reelection fight coming up next year, which may have swayed Pelosi, as Udall acknowledged.
(Lampson hasn’t been the only member lobbying his colleagues to support the additional funding; the Orlando Sentinel reported last week that Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) had sent a “Dear Colleague” letter in support of the funding. Lampson, though, doubtless has better access to the speaker than Weldon…)
Udall also said there would be very few strings attached to the additional $1 billion, to give NASA administrator Mike Griffin (who was in attendance at the breakfast) the flexibility to spend the money where it was most needed, “as long as it doesn’t all go in one pot.”
The biggest obstacle, though, remains the threat of a Presidential veto of the overall appropriations bill. (As noted at the breakfast, it’s less difficult to get the House to support the funding increase if they know the bill is going to be vetoed regardless.) “We will be here into the middle of December, by all accounts,” Udall said, anticipating the veto and corresponding efforts to either override the veto or come up with an alternative funding bill. “The crossroad we’ll reach is do we have a CR [continuing resolution] and a standoff, or do we find some sweet spot where we compromise.” He said there is a “spirit” of compromise in the House, but didn’t know if that extended to the Senate or the White House.
October 18, 2007 at 6:06 am · Filed under Congress
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 as marked by the launch of Sputnik 1. The non-controversial resolution lists the history and benefits of space exploration, then “declares it to be in America’s interest to continue to advance knowledge and improve life on Earth through a sustained national commitment to space exploration in all its forms, led by a new generation of well educated scientists, engineers, and explorers.” The resolution, which passed on a voice vote, was sponsored by House Science and Technology Committee chairman Rep. Bart Gordon, with 11 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.
Yesterday, the House passed H.Con.Res. 222, a resolution honoring NASA’s Langley Research Center, which marks its 90th anniversary later this month. The passage of the resolution (approved by a 421-0 roll call vote) was a bittersweet moment: the resolution has been introduced by the late Rep. Jo Ann Davis(R-VA) less than a week before her death. The legislation was co-sponsored by the rest of the Virginia House delegation.
October 17, 2007 at 7:49 am · Filed under Congress
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 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which reimburses states for jailing illegal immigrants (not space aliens, Rudy.) The amendment was defeated on a 68-25 vote (although the Chronicle reports the vote as 70-23). Opponents of the amendment, like Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, argued that anything that stripped money from NASA would extend the “gap” between the shuttle and Orion, creating, as she put it, “a security risk for the United States” (a belief that isn’t exactly universally shared).
The bad news: the bill still has to be reconciled with the House version that doesn’t have the extra $1 billion the Senate approved earlier this month. The overall appropriations bill still faces a threatened presidential veto. According to a report by the AP, Congress plans this appropriations bill to be one of the first to be sent to the president “to test the strength of his veto”.
October 16, 2007 at 12:37 pm · Filed under Congress, NASA
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, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management, Government Accountability Office
It’ll be interesting (to say the least) to find out what the GAO has to say on the Ares 1 and Orion programs.
October 16, 2007 at 7:29 am · Filed under Other
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 and Japan. If the British government does decide to support human spaceflight, it won’t rush into it, incorporating the costs into its 2011-2014 spending plan rather than a 2008-2010 spending plan announced earlier this month.
(Update: the head of the RAF has weighed in and thinks a UK astronaut corps is a good idea in part as “a means of inspiring young people to join his service”.)
The irony in all this is that while the UK government doesn’t support human spaceflight, UK businesses do. Virgin Galactic is based in London and Starchaser, another company pursuing suborbital space tourism, is based near Manchester.
October 15, 2007 at 12:49 pm · Filed under Campaign '08
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 asked the former New York mayor about his plan to protect Earth.
“If (there’s) something living on another planet and it’s bad and it comes over here, what would you do?” the boy asked.
Giuliani, grin on his face, said it was the first time he’s been asked about an intergalactic attack.
“Of all the things that can happen in this world, we’ll be prepared for that, yes we will. We’ll be prepared for anything that happens,” said Giuliani, who spent the day campaigning in key early voting state.
Hmmm… this opens up a rich new vein of questioning for all the presidential candidates, not just Giuliani. How do they feel about a Mars sample return mission (after all, there might still be something microbial living on Mars that could be “bad”)? How much funding should NASA devote to astrobiology research? What about searches for potentially hazardous objects (which are not living, of course, but would be bad if one came here)? Who would be the tougher alien invader to deal with, Klingons or Romulans?
Somehow I think that last question has as good a shot of being asked as any of them…
October 11, 2007 at 6:14 am · Filed under Other
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 year. Reports by Reuters and the AP suggest several reasons why ministers decided to hold off on a decision until next month, ranging from a desire to get ESA to pay a larger share of the system’s cost to ensuring that the countries that contribute the most to the system get a corresponding share of the contracts to develop the system. Also, some countries would like to see money come from the EU’s research and development budget rather than agricultural programs.
The AP article ends on this note about the lengths supporters of Galileo are going to win support for the project:
In its push for public funding, the European Commission points to a recent survey which showed that 80 percent of EU citizens believe the bloc should use taxpayers’ money to complete the Galileo project even though 40 percent of those questioned said they had not heard of it.
October 10, 2007 at 6:04 am · Filed under Congress, Other, Campaign '08
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 transition on the state’s economy, and in particular the economy of the Space Coast region of the state. Part of the problem is the so-called “gap” between the retirement of the shuttle and the introduction of Orion, although another issue (glossed over in the reports) is that, as currently planned, Orion and Ares 1 will not require as large a workforce as the shuttle does today.
What does Gov. Crist think about all this? “I’m very excited about the future as it relates to space, as it relates to the real estate market, and other things,” WTSP-TV reported. (Real estate market?) He also tells the Tallahassee Democrat that the situation is “on the precipice of panic” in Brevard County, home to KSC.
Feeney, talking up the strengths of the Cape Canaveral area, goes a little too far at one point with the Democrat: “We’re the best place on the planet because of the way the earth rotates - not even Congress can mess that up - to launch equatorial orbits,” he says. That’s doubtless a surprise to Arianespace, which launches out of Kourou, French Guiana, just a few degrees north of the Equator; or to Sea Launch, whose mobile launch site allows them to perform launches on the Equator. Proof, apparently, that while Congress can’t mess up the location of Cape Canaveral, a member of Congress can mess up its importance.
Feeney also asked Crist “to use his influence with visiting presidential candidates to make sure the Space Coast stays in the technology forefront,” according to the Democrat. One candidate already gets a conditional endorsement of sorts from Florida Today, which appreciates and largely supports Hillary Clinton’s space policy statement issued last week. The paper likes in particular the passing reference in the policy to accelerate Ares 1 and Orion development, but adds, “There’s no way to know if Clinton would actually follow this course, or if it’s just another talking point that will disappear like so much cosmic dust. The paper hopes that “Clinton’s stance will cause more candidates to come forward with their ideas” about space.
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