December « 2007 « Space Politics

The importance of citing (and vetting) your sources

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 16 at 5:37 pm ET

This afternoon I was finishing up the second volume of Astronautics, a two-volume history of the Space Age by Ted Spitzmiller published this fall by Apogee Books. A section about the future of the ISS and its overall viability states that NASA administration Michael Griffin had said that he would not have chose to build […]

SEA plans February budget blitz

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 15 at 4:32 pm ET

The Space Exploration Alliance (SEA) is planning an annual “legislative blitz” in February, bringing together to people to meet Congressional staffers on space policy issues. The February 10-12 event will be focused on the FY2009 budget proposal, which will have been released about a week earlier. “Participants will be the first members of the space […]

(Another) brief note about comments

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 15 at 4:23 pm ET

Since this issue has come up in the comment threads of more than one post, I’ll briefly mention it here. There is no way to prevent a determined individual from posting comments here, regardless of what you think of them. Thanks to anonymizing servers, people can comment without leaving any trace of where they actually […]

Spaceport tax delay in New Mexico

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 13 at 7:33 am ET

[Cross-posted from Personal Spaceflight for your reading convenience.]

The attorney general of New Mexico has concluded that a local tax increase passed this spring to help fund development of Spaceport America should not be collected starting January 1 as originally planned because of a lack of a mechanism to spend the revenues. Voters in Doña […]

Florida Today sees “signs of trouble” in Ares 1

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 13 at 7:25 am ET

The day after NASA awarded the last major contract for the development of the Ares 1, Florida Today weighs in on a recent GAO report on the vehicle, saying that the report raises “signs of trouble” about not just the vehicle but also the overall exploration architecture. “At this early juncture, the Ares and Orion […]

NASA in the budget crosshairs?

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 11 at 8:03 am ET

The Washington Post reports today that a deal on an omnibus domestic spending bill has fallen through after Congressman David Obey, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, complained that the Republicans were “bargaining in bad faith” on the proposal. The Democrats had proposed a $520 billion spending bill that would include additional domestic spending that […]

Getting candidates to care about space exploration

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 10 at 7:08 am ET

Using the lackluster response to a question about human Mars exploration in a recent Republican debate as a springboard, Daniel Handlin asks why candidates aren’t more proactive about space exploration policy issues in an article in this week’s issue of The Space Review. Noting Mike Huckabee’s statement that “Whether we ought to go to Mars […]

Kucinich: Sun and wind, not Moon

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 10 at 6:55 am ET

An article in the Nevada newspaper Pahrump Valley Times (“Nye County’s Largest Newspaper Circulation”) covers a recent visit by Elizabeth Kucinich, wife of presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Mrs. Kucinich had this to say about her husband’s priorities with regard to NASA:

Kuchinich said her husband’s 12 point plan includes a Works Green Administration, similar to […]

It’s hard to let go

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 6 at 7:42 am ET

As the 2010 retirement date for the space shuttle looms, it’s not surprising that some people want to keep the shuttle flying for at least a little bit longer. The Orlando Sentinel reports today that some members of Congress are prepared to take legislative steps to extend the shuttle’s life. A group of Texas members […]

Change in GOP leadership of Senate space subcommittee

By Jeff Foust on 2007 December 5 at 5:43 pm ET

The Republican leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee announced this afternoon that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison would be leaving her post as ranking member of the Space, Aeronautics, and Related Sciences subcommittee to take the same position on the Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security subcommittee. That post had been held by Sen. Trent Lott, who […]

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