Zubrin’s stimulus plan: on to Mars

By Jeff Foust on 2009 February 7 at 7:59 pm ET

Friday’s Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, featured an op-ed on the economic stimulus package from a surprising source: Robert Zubrin, best known in the space community as perhaps the most dedicated (zealous?) advocate for human Mars exploration. Zubrin, identified in the piece not as founder of the Mars Society but instead as “a senior […]

Filed under: Other | 6 comments

NASA funding (mostly) survives Senate stimulus compromise

By Jeff Foust on 2009 February 7 at 11:36 am ET

Late Friday evening the office of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), who had been working to trim some spending from the Senate’s economic stimulus bill, released a statement with details on a compromise he and other senators reached on spending cuts. The $1.5 billion for NASA that Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) advocated, including $500 million to […]

Filed under: Congress, NASA | 6 comments

Political tensions and the search for a new NASA administrator

By Jeff Foust on 2009 February 7 at 11:11 am ET

An article by Andy Pasztor in today’s Wall Street Journal (one that does not appear to require a subscription) reports that retired general Lester Lyles is under consideration to be NASA administrator by the Obama administration. That Lyles is being considered isn’t necessarily new—NASA Watch reported the rumors about Lyles over a week ago—but the […]

Filed under: NASA, White House | 13 comments

What the new Transportation Secretary thinks about commercial space

By Jeff Foust on 2009 February 6 at 5:20 am ET

When the incoming Obama Administration picked Ray LaHood to be Secretary of Transportation in December, many commercial space advocates breathed a sigh of relief, as they had been concerned that Congressman James Oberstar, who opposed the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, might get the job. LaHood, though, was something of a cipher to […]

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Nelson vs. Nelson

By Jeff Foust on 2009 February 6 at 4:59 am ET

Ah, the headline writer’s dream: a battle between not only two senators of the same party, but also with the same last name. As Florida Today and Orlando Sentinel both report, Bill Nelson (D-FL) is trying to convince Ben Nelson (D-NE) to support the $1.5 billion in NASA funding in the Senate version of the […]

Filed under: Congress | 5 comments

Lobbying efforts ramp up

By Jeff Foust on 2009 February 5 at 4:59 am ET

We don’t know who the next NASA administrator is going to be, nor what the new administration’s space policy plans are, nor what sort of budget the administration will request, but that’s not stopping some advocacy groups from pressing their agendas on Congress. The National Space Society is planning its annual Legislative Blitz in conjunction […]

Filed under: Lobbying, States | 7 comments

Et tu, Dave?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 February 4 at 7:51 am ET

If you saw this Orlando Sentinel headline—“Former Fla. lawmaker to help Palin on space”—the first thing that may have popped into your mind was the former vice presidential candidate was already assembling a coterie of advisers to prepare for a future run at national office. And while that might eventually be the case, the news […]

Filed under: States | 2 comments

Rethinking NASA’s direction and communication

By Jeff Foust on 2009 February 4 at 7:46 am ET

Belatedly, a couple of articles from Monday’s issue of The Space Review about NASA and its future direction:

Taylor Dinerman examines some of the issues that the next NASA administrator is going to face, but goes beyond some of the tactical issues like supporting the shuttle workforce and making a decision on the future of […]

Filed under: NASA | 6 comments
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