Space Politics
Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway…
Archive for February, 2009
February 7, 2009 at 7:59 pm · Filed under Other
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 fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies“, offered a three-point alternative to the current stimulus plans being discussed in Congress. Two of the items, making down payments on home purchases tax-deductable and requiring all new cars being sold in the US to be flex-fueled, have nothing to do with space, but the third most certainly did: “initiate a program to send humans to Mars within eight years”. His conclusion:
We can reach Mars within eight years, and we should. In doing so, we will make it clear to the world, and to ourselves, that we are a people whose can-do spirit can defy any limit, that we are living at the beginning of our history, not at its end, and that henceforth, our greatest deeds will continue to be celebrated in newspapers and not just in museums. We can not only beat the current recession, but soar far beyond it, into a wide-open future truly worthy of the promise that is America.
Given the difficulties getting even a modest bit of NASA funding in the stimulus package, the odds of this proposal getting considered, let alone enacted, are roughly zero—which may be true for his other proposals as well.
February 7, 2009 at 11:36 am · Filed under Congress, NASA
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 reduce the Shuttle-Constellation gap, had in the crosshairs of Ben Nelson, Susan Collins (R-ME), and other cutters. The compromise, though, leaves that $500 million intract, instead cutting $200 million of the $500 million sought for Earth sciences research:
|
House |
Senate Original |
Senate Compromise |
| Science |
$400M |
$500M |
$300M |
| Aeronautics |
$150M |
$250M |
$250M |
| Shuttle Replacement |
$0 |
$500M |
$500M |
| Cross-Agency Support (Construction) |
$50M |
$250M |
$250M |
| Office of the Inspector General |
$2M |
$2M |
$2M |
Assuming this compromise does pass the full Senate, keep in mind that the Senate version will have to be reconciled with the House version, which provided $600 million for NASA, and none of that for human spaceflight.
February 7, 2009 at 11:11 am · Filed under NASA, White House
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 Journal article does note that Lyles’s name “has circulated widely on Capitol Hill and his credentials have been examined by White House aides.” The article doesn’t mention, though, what sort of timeframe there might be for finally coming to a decision on Lyles or someone else.
An extended delay in naming the next administrator, Pasztor speculates, “could strengthen the position of Sen. [Bill] Nelson and others who support the current space program and the thousands of jobs it provides in Florida and elsewhere” since it would take a new administrator months to carry out a review of NASA priorities, and the new administration hasn’t made its space policy priorities clear (although to be fair, they’ve been in office only two and a half weeks and have been a little preoccupied with other matters.) And while Bill Nelson was strongly critical of Gration (enough, reportedly, to put a halt to plans to nominate him last month), the Journal does note that “[s]ome industry and government officials say Gen. Gration is still in the running.”
February 6, 2009 at 5:20 am · Filed under Other
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 the commercial space community: he never really dealt at all with space issues of any flavor during his tenure as a Republican congressman from Illinois. What were his opinions, if any, on commercial space transportation?
A partial answer—one that was unsurprising but encouraging—came Thursday at the FAA’s annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Crystal City, Virginia. Keynote speaker Thomas Barrett, the Deputy Secretary of Transportation (and a holdover from the Bush Administration), apologized to attendees that LaHood could not be there in person: LaHood was, in fact, at a train station in Maryland with Vice President Joe Biden, promoting funding in the stimulus package for mass transit. However, Barrett said that he had brought up commercial space transportation with LaHood shortly after he became Transportation Secretary. “It’s on his radar. He’s interested in commercial space,” Barrett said. “I told him about my experience with this program and my enthusiasm for it and for the people who are in it. And he said, ‘I don’t know a lot about that. I’d really like to learn more.’” Barrett added that he found that attitude “refreshing” and “very positive”. “He wants to learn, and he’s a quick learner.”
February 6, 2009 at 4:59 am · Filed under Congress
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 economic stimulus package. Bill Nelson is a strong supporter of the agency and has been pushing for the extra funding, while Ben Nelson (not related to Bill) is concerned about the existence of “non-stimulative items” in the bill—including, apparently, that NASA funding Bill Nelson is seeking.
In an effort to preserve the NASA money, Bill Nelson has asked for support from Sen. Daniel Inouye, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. In a letter to Inouye, Bill Nelson cites a wide variety of benefits NASA research provides, adding that the upcoming Shuttle-Constellation gap is “shameful” and appreciating any additional funding Inouye can help provide “to help address this problem.” A vote on the stimulus package, with or without the NASA funding, could come as early as today.
February 5, 2009 at 4:59 am · Filed under Lobbying, States
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 with the Space Exploration Alliance on February 22-24. As in past years, this event will feature teams of space activists meeting with Congressional offices to push the theme that “space must be a national priority”, although they have not disclosed any policy specifics.
The Planetary Society is also stepping up its Congressional outreach in support of “Beyond the Moon”, its space exploration roadmap released in November that deemphasizes a human return to the Moon while making Mars the ultimate long-term goal for human spaceflight. The organization plans to distribute copies of that report to all members of Congress early this month. “By reaching out to Congress early in its term,” the group notes, “the Society is making sure that its voice and that of its members will be heard when the time comes to make difficult budgetary decisions.”
February 4, 2009 at 7:51 am · Filed under States
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 was instead linked to Palin’s current position as Alaska governor: she appointed former Congressman Dave Weldon to the board of directors of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation, the state corporate that operates the Kodiak Launch Complex.
That selection doesn’t sit well with the editorial board of Florida Today, and for reasons having nothing to do with any political ambitions of Governor Palin. The paper is worried that Alaska will use Weldon’s experience and connections to win business away from the Cape, and calls Weldon’s decision to joint the board “disappointing”. An excerpt:
Palin cited Weldon’s experience on the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics for the appointment. But what she didn’t say undoubtedly played a part in the decision:
His insider knowledge of Florida’s plans to utilize Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – which also was in his district – to lure private rocket and satellite companies.
That – coupled with Weldon’s Washington know-how in steering space projects to states – could cost Brevard County more jobs in the fierce competition among Florida and other states to attract launch business at a time when the shuttle’s retirement next year will result in about 3,500 job cuts at KSC.
There is, as you might have guessed, a problem with this assessment: Cape Canaveral and Kodiak aren’t much in competition with one another. While the Cape focuses primarily on larger launch vehicles, including the EELVs and the Shuttle, Kodiak can only currently host small launch vehicles. The Cape can’t support launches in polar orbits (at least not very well), while Kodiak can essentially only do polar orbit launches. And in recent years pretty much the only launch activity out of Kodiak has been in support of missile defense tests, as opposed to satellite launches. So, while it’s good to be vigilant, there’s a fine line between vigilance and paranoia.
February 4, 2009 at 7:46 am · Filed under NASA
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 Ares 1. The next administrator “must be ready to spend far more time spreading the message that space exploration and scientific discovery are essential to our way of life.” Also: “One trap that some previous administrators have fallen into is to concentrate on cultivating the Congress. This is of course very important, but ultimately politicians respond to the voters. Whoever becomes the head of the agency should spend a little less time with the pro-space industry choir and get out to places where NASA’s message rarely is heard.”
Separately, I look at the issue of how space advocates should be communicating with the public about space. There’s a certain frustration among NASA supporters that the public doesn’t care about space, and what’s needed is more outreach by supporters, something former CNN space correspondent Miles O’Brien opined about in a Space News op-ed a few weeks ago. The question I ask is whether the issue is the frequency of communications, or instead the message itself: arguments that worked in the 1960s aren’t necessarily effective nearly a half-century later.
« Previous entries
