March « 2010 « Space Politics

Briefly noted: Kosmas, Parker, and the GAO

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 16 at 6:31 am ET

The big effort in the House this week is to pass a health care reform bill, but that doesn’t mean that space can’t figure into the mix. The Orlando Sentinel reported that Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL) brought up the subject in a meeting with President Obama last Thursday. The president if trying to secure Kosmas’s […]

It’s commercial space week

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 15 at 12:17 pm ET

Well, not really, but it’s close. On Thursday afternoon the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee is planning a hearing titled “Assessing Commercial Space Capabilities”. The witness list and other hearing details haven’t been published on the committee web site as of midday Monday, but this appears to be the hearing Sen. Nelson referred […]

Another step towards export control reform

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 12 at 7:04 am ET

Speaking at the annual conference of the Ex-Im Bank in Washington on Thursday, President Obama announced that a new proposal for reforming export control policies—the bane of the commercial space industry in the US for a decade now—is in the works:

Finally, weâ€™re working to reform our Export Control System for our strategic, high-tech […]

One other note about shuttle extension

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 11 at 7:25 am ET

On the recently hot topic of shuttle extension, I recommend that people review the comments to yesterday’s post on the topic, where shuttle program manager John Shannon has provided his insights to clarify what’s been reported on the topic. In addition, David Radzanowski, deputy associate administrator for program intergration in the Space Operations Mission Directorate […]

Posey and Kosmas introduce House version of spaceflight gap bill

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 11 at 6:16 am ET

Yesterday Reps. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL) and Bill Posey (R-FL) introduced the “Human Spaceflight Capability Assurance and Protection Act”, which they called the companion version to legislation introduced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) last week. The text of the legislation isn’t posted yet, but the summary included in Kosmas’s press release covers the major issues […]

A little bit more about the White House space conference

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 10 at 11:17 pm ET

One of the biggest questions in the space community right now is what’s behind the White House’s decision on Sunday to hold a space conference featuring President Obama in Florida on April 15: why hold the conference, and what do they expect to get out of it, among other issues. NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver […]

Congressmen to call for 30-day spaceflight study

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 10 at 10:22 pm ET

On Thursday six members of the House, all Republicans, wil hold a press conference at the Capitol to ask NASA administrator Charles Bolden to conduct a study in advance of next month’s presidential space conference. Here’s how the event is described in a release late today from one of the six participating members, John Culberson […]

Hanging on to the shuttle

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 10 at 6:16 am ET

The retirement of the shuttle, which not long ago appeared to be a largely settled issue, seems a little less so now. Last week Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) introduced legislation that would at least study extending the shuttle for up to five more years at up to two missions a year; companion legislation is […]

Shelby seeks a critical mass

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 9 at 7:28 am ET

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) hasn’t changed his mind about NASA’s new direction, one that cancels Constellation and seeks to develop commercial systems to transport crews to and from low Earth orbit. He does realize, though, that he has a challenge in front of him: convincing fellow members of Congress that don’t think much about space […]

Mikulski’s unlikely fundraiser

By Jeff Foust on 2010 March 7 at 11:27 am ET

Place this in the “politics makes for strange bedfellows” file: today’s Baltimore Sun reports on an interesting source of fundraising for Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), chair of the appropriations subcommittee with oversight of NASA’s budget, who is running for reelection this year. The article notes that the Huntsville metro area is fourth in donating to […]

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