December « 2009 « Space Politics

Innovative new arguments for Constellation

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 17 at 6:46 am ET

Most of the arguments for NASA’s Constellation program, specifically Ares 1 and Orion, have fallen along familiar lines: safety, performance, jobs, national prestige, and the like. Planetary defense and climate control? Not so much. But that’s exactly what NBC’s Jay Barbree suggested in a brief report yesterday about the meeting between Obama and Bolden:

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Bolden and Obama (and Pelosi, too)

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 17 at 6:45 am ET

Yesterday’s meeting between NASA administrator Charles Bolden and President Barack Obama didn’t result in any announcements, or, for that matter, any apparent decisions on the future direction of the space agency. “The two spoke about the Administrator’s work at NASA and they also discussed the Augustine Committee’s analysis,” White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro told Florida […]

Senate committee to consider launch indemnification bill Thursday

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 16 at 5:30 am ET

The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to deal with a bill Thursday to extend the existing launch indemnification regime. HR 3819, a bill that would extend the commercial launch indemnification regime for three years, is on the schedule for an executive session of the full commerce committee on Thursday at 10 am, along with a […]

Bolden to meet with Obama

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 16 at 5:20 am ET

The space community is making much of an item in President Obama’s schedule for Wednesday: a 3:05 pm meeting with NASA administrator Charles Bolden in the Oval Office to “discuss the Administrator’s work at NASA and… the Augustine Committee’s analysis.” Does that mean a decision on the future of NASA’s human spaceflight program is imminent?

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Lobbying for the Program of Record and Flexible Path

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 15 at 6:48 am ET

‘Tis the seasonâ€¦ for lobbying, that is, regardless if you’re a proponent of the current “Program of Record” or the alternative “Flexible Path” option from the Augustine committee report. Boeing Space Exploration is encouraging its employees to voice their support for the current program, establishing a web site where they can fill out a form […]

Shelby ratchets up the rhetoric

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 14 at 11:00 pm ET

The debate over the Augustine committee’s work went to a new level this afternoon when a senator alleged that the committee was “tainted” by lobbyists for the commercial space industry. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) issued a statement Monday accompanied by a letter to NASA inspector general Paul Martin. The key paragraph of Shelby’s letter:

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Why isn’t there a space council already?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 14 at 1:21 pm ET

During the 2008 presidential campaign then-candidate Barack Obama pledged to reinstate the National Aeronautics and Space Council (usually just referred to as the National Space Council), a point he made in his space policy white paper:

There is currently no organizational authority in the Federal government with a sufficiently broad mandate to oversee a […]

Gordon to retire

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 14 at 1:12 pm ET

Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, announced this morning that he will not seek reelection in 2010. Gordon, who was first elected to Congress in 1984, said it was time for him to being a “new chapter” in his life. “When I was elected, I was the youngest member […]

He’s still turning up the heat

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 13 at 10:49 am ET

We noted here last week that Congressman Parker Griffith (D-AL) had some strong comments about the lack of a space policy decision for the White House to date, and the underlying concern that such a decision could jeopardize the future of the Ares 1 (which is being developed by NASA Marshall, in his district). At […]

Name that Congressman

By Jeff Foust on 2009 December 12 at 5:04 pm ET

At Thursday’s Women in Aerospace breakfast event in Washington, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco passed along this anecdote from Capitol Hill:

I was visiting the Hill, talking to members of Congress about the importance of our satellite systems, and a member of Congress who shall go unnamed said to me, “I don’t need your satellites. […]

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