Campaign tidbits

A few minor items related to space policy and the presidential campaign:

The Orlando Sentinel has a more complete transcript of Barack Obama’s comments about space policy he made in Florida on Wednesday. One statement that didn’t make it into the Florida Today video: “Now I know we’re transitioning from the shuttle to the Orion […]

Obama still seeking inspiration and direction for NASA

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made his first trip to Florida in a year on Wednesday, including a stop in the central Florida community of Kissimmee. Obama, like other Democratic candidates, had steered clear of Florida after national party officials put the state in the penalty box for moving up its primary to late January. […]

Japan approves new military space policy

The Japanese parliament has approved legislation that would allow the country to make enhanced military use of space. The upper house of the Diet overwhelmingly approved the bill Tuesday; the lower house previously passed the bill. The bill is described as “lifting a 1969 ban on military use of outer space”, although that prohibition has […]

Additional tidbits in the authorization bill

With the House Science and Technology Committee’s space subcommittee scheduled to markup HR 6063, the NASA authorization bill for FY 2009, later today, it’s worth looking at some of the other provisions of the bill not covered in previous discussions:

The bill would reauthorize the Glory mission, which ran into the NASA equivalent of the […]

Misinterpreting the authorization bill?

Saturday’s Orlando Sentinel has an article about HR 6063, the recently-introduced NASA authorization bill for FY 2009. The reporters play up the international cooperation language in the bill—perhaps too far:

President Bush had a simple plan for NASA in 2004. Stick another American flag on the moon and launch a new American-led space age.

[…]

NASA authorization bill text available

The full text of HR 6063, the NASA Authorization Act of 2008, is now available on Thomas. I have not had time to review it yet, but wanted to be sure people were aware it’s available and open up any discussion about its provisions (some of which has already started in the earlier post about […]

How to sell a spaceport tax

Now that two counties in souther New Mexico have passed a sales tax increase to help fund development of a commercial spaceport, attention now turns to the third and final county in the region, Otero, which includes the city of Alamogordo. So how you convince citizens to vote for a tax increase, even a relatively […]

NASA authorization bill introduced in House

The leaders of the House Science and Technology Committee formally introduced new authorization bill for NASA on Thursday, in advance of next week’s markup session on the legislation. The text of the bill, HR 6063, isn’t available yet (it should be in the next day or so), but the statement about the bill by Rep. […]

Maybe you need a better hope

An article in the Houston Chronicle yesterday said that members of Congress who represent the Houston area had declared Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison their “last best hope” for increasing NASA’s budget. The focus here is on the FY2008 supplemental appropriations bill working its way through Congress, which has an extra $200 million for NASA in […]

NASA authorization bill markup next week

The space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee is planning a markup of the planned NASA reauthorization bill next Tuesday, the 20th, at 10 am. The planned legislation has not been released yet; the hearing announcement did not even include a bill number for it.