November « 2011 « Space Politics

Cain repeats his criticism of Obama’s space policy

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 12 at 2:30 pm ET

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, on the campaign trail in Georgia Saturday, again mentioned space policy, putting the blame for the current state of the nation’s civil space program squarely on the Obama Administration. The AP reports that Cain, addressing young Republicans in Atlanta, contrasted President Kennedy with Obama, calling Kennedy a “great leader” for […]

Albrecht: NASA has become a “risk-averse feudal empire”

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 11 at 7:23 am ET

If you’re looking, in this era of reduced budgets, cost overruns, and battles over various program, for someone with an optimistic view of America’s space ambitions, well, Mark Albrecht probably isn’t the person for you.

“The civil space program, in my opinion, is broken,” Albrecht, who had been executive secretary of the National Space Council […]

More advocacy for commercial crew

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 9 at 7:19 am ET

With Congress expected to complete work next week on a FY2012 appropriations bill that includes NASA (the goal is to complete the bill before the current continuing resolution expires next Friday), supporters of NASA’s commercial crew program are making another, perhaps final, push to win full funding for the program. In an op-ed published Monday […]

“We the People” think only a little about space

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 8 at 7:00 am ET

There was a flurry of media attention over the weekend and on Monday to the official White House response to a petition to “formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race”. In what doesn’t exactly qualify as breaking news, the White House stated, “The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside […]

Adams supports Senate funding for commercial crew

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 4 at 8:34 pm ET

Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL) doesn’t see eye to eye with the White House on very many issues, including much of the administration’s space policy. However, recently she has become a more outspoken supporter of one element of that policy, development of commercial vehicles to transport crews to and from the ISS. “As America takes steps […]

Obama talks space with Florida, Texas TV

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 4 at 6:32 am ET

Earlier this week President Obama did a series of short interviews with local television stations around the country. These interviews included stations in Houston and Tampa, and in both cases the topic of space came up, particularly in relation to the economy and jobs in Texas and Florida.

Houston’s KTRK, not surprisingly, brought up the […]

Another attempt at export control reform legislation

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 3 at 6:06 am ET

A bipartisan group of House members announced Wednesday that they have introduced legislation to reform satellite export controls. The legislation, HR 3288, would restore to the White House the ability to determine what satellite components should be on the US Munitions List (USML), while maintaining a prohibition on exports of such items to China and […]

Bolden to testify at China hearing today

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 2 at 1:20 pm ET

The Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), is holding a hearing titled “Efforts to Transfer Americaâ€™s Leading Edge Science to China” at 3 pm EDT today. (The hearing will be webcast on the committee’s site and also carried on NASA TV.) The witnesses at the […]

Minibus next stop: the House

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 2 at 7:08 am ET

On Tuesday the Senate, as expected, passed a “minibus” appropriations bill that combined three separate appropriations bills, including the Commerce, Justice, and Science bill that funds NASA and NOAA. The Senate made no material changes to those sections of the bill, leaving NASA’s overall funding at $17.9 billion, including full funding of the Orion MPCV, […]

The asterisk in Monday’s commercial crew announcement

By Jeff Foust on 2011 November 1 at 6:29 am ET

It was all smiles yesterday morning at the Kennedy Space Center as officials from NASA, Boeing, and Space Florida, along with various elected officials, announced that Boeing would set up operations at KSC’s Orbiter Processing Facility 3 for the eventually assembly of its CST-100 commercial crew vehicles. The focus of the attention was, by and […]

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