Congress

New legislation seeks to aid former astronauts, Space Coast workers

Last week the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), introduced H.R. 4158, a bill design to “confirm full ownership rights for certain United States astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts’ space missions.” The bill simply confers full ownership rights of any artifacts that had been given to astronauts who flew on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, with an exception for lunar rocks “and other lunar material”. The legislation is designed to address recent events where NASA challenged the ownership of several artifacts that Apollo-era astronauts were planning to sell. The legislation has 18 cosponsors, primarily fellow members of the science committee, and since the legislation has been referred to that committee, it’s likely to be favorably reported out.

Also last week, Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced S. 2157, the Shuttle Workforce Revitalization Act of 2012. The bill designates Brevard County, Florida, as a Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) through at least the end of 2019, giving businesses there preferential treatment in some federal procurements. The legislation is designed to help the area recover from the retirement of the shuttle and resulting economic impact on the Space Coast. The bill is the Senate’s version of a similar House bill introduced last July by Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL). The House has yet to take action on that bill, H.R. 2712.

24 comments to New legislation seeks to aid former astronauts, Space Coast workers

  • amightywind

    designed to address recent events where NASA challenged the ownership of several artifacts that Apollo-era astronauts were planning to sell.

    Our space program, reduced to squabbling over trinkets and the hulks of retired space shuttles. How depressing. These guys are as depressing as Pete Rose selling signed baseballs.

    Bill Nelson. With one hand he giveth and the other he taketh away – at the same time, and with money borrowed from the chicoms. Space Politics has made me depressed today.

  • Last Gasp

    I agree with the wind, at least with respect to NASA and congress.

  • Scott Bass

    My take is it was stupid of NASA to challenge these guys in the first place… So if it takes legislation then so be it, if an item is deemed to historically significant to be on the open market then the the smithdonian should be authorized to bid on it

  • E.P. Grondine

    Bravo to Hall and others on the astronauts’ gifts bill.
    I predict swift bi-partisan passage of that one.
    Please keep it clean.

    We could have had DIRECT and 2 manned launch systems, with no “dislocations” in any of our skilled work base, for the money wasted on Ares 1.

    Hi speed rail could have greatly contributed to the future infrastructure of Brevard, and been in place by the time the Ares 1 mess was cleaned up.

  • Robert G. Oler

    Doug L… what “robots” mean

    lol

    http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Number_Six

    RGO

  • amightywind

    Please keep it clean.

    My hope and expectation is that Rubio will attach Keystone XL to it.

  • The attack by Hutchinson on commercial space is an attack on Space Coast jobs.

  • Coastal Ron

    amightywind wrote @ March 13th, 2012 at 8:19 am

    Space Politics has made me depressed today.

    Made all the more worse, I’m sure, by the fact that the Republican House is what’s driving this.

    However I can’t tell – is it the Republican sponsor of HUBZone in the House that’s being fiscally irresponsible in your mind, or the Republican sponsor of HUBZone in the Senate?

  • Doug Lassiter

    Robert G. Oler wrote @ March 13th, 2012 at 10:54 am
    “http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Number_Six”

    Nothing telerobotic about her. I doubt if she does nothing more than what you tell her to do. I wonder what the first five were like.

  • Coastal Ron

    Doug Lassiter wrote @ March 13th, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    I doubt if she does nothing more than what you tell her to do.

    Didn’t watch the show? No one tells a six what to do… ;-)

  • E.P. Grondine

    Hi RGO –

    Back here in the real world, once again, sadly, the Japanese beat us in robots:

    http://www.androidworld.com/Monrobot.jpg

    I’m sure googaw will be upset by this news.

    AW – Obama approved more ocean drilling, and the BP blowout immediately followed.

    Can the Congress just keep the gifts to the astronauts bill clean, and move it through quickly?

  • E.P. Grondine

    KSFC and Cocoa Beach beat Disneyworld for my next door neighbors during their trip to Florida.

  • DCSCA

    @Dark Blue Nine wrote @ March 12th, 2012 at 10:26 pm

    Now that you’ve claimed LEO is easy to reach w/the government funded and designed Soyuz (yet claimed to be hard to access by commerical firms seeking government subsidies) and you’ve decided commercial HSF is equated w/a tourism firm using government bought and developed facilities as a subsidy for profiteering, not having invested and developed same themselves, you can look forward to applying for HUBzone funding someday if it passes. And you might want to check w/ol’ Buzz Aldrin, who supports the moon, methods & procedures learned there in, as a path to Mars. Commercial HSF advocacy always collapses when they’re forced to carry the fiscal burden and lead the way which is why, as in the case of Space Adventures, they’ve always been follow alongs, cashing in where they could, feeding off of the taxpayers who’ve carried the burden, there by socializing the risk on the many to benefit a select few. To label you dense would be an insult to the atmosphere of Jupiter. A technician w/a narrow interest, a personal agenda and closed mind is more appropriate. and narrow minded technicians are outside the area of their competence when it comes to space policy.

  • DCSCA

    amightywind wrote @ March 13th, 2012 at 8:19 am

    Space Politics has made me depressed today.

    Why– after all, it’s just more free drift through the Age of Austerity. It’s been that way since the ISS became a Cold War dinosaur. By now, Windy, you should realize that only an external event is going bump the national space effort up the agenda and get it moving again. American space efforts have always been reactive, not proactive, and never been an element of the national character. This commercial chatter is all just short term noise- for as history has shown, it always tried to cash in afterward to benefit a few, letting governments socialize the risk on the many, making a buck where it can. THat’s the nature of it. And as we both know, LEO is a ticket to no place.

  • Dark Blue Nine

    “… a personal agenda and closed mind is more appropriate. and narrow minded technicians…”

    Really? I havn’t even posted in this thread, yet you’re carrying your weird, off-topic vendetta into this thread after your obsessive-compulsive behavior shut down the last thread? Really?

    What an utter creep you are.

    “Now that you’ve claimed LEO is easy to reach w/the government funded and designed Soyuz”

    Yes, LEO was an easy reach for Soyuz because it was originally designed for lunar missions. This was already covered in the prior thread. It’s a matter of engineering, not funding source.

    “you’ve decided commercial HSF is equated w/a tourism firm”

    This was also covered in the prior thread. To repeat, I don’t equate one company with an entire national space program. But to an idiot who states that there is no profit in space tourism, as you did, Space Adventures proves that you’re wrong.

    “And you might want to check w/ol’ Buzz Aldrin, who supports the moon… Commercial HSF advocacy always collapses…”

    Aldrin is a commercial human space flight advocate, you idiot.

  • AW – Obama approved more ocean drilling, and the BP blowout immediately followed.

    Do you imagine that there’s a connection between those two events?

  • DCSCA

    Dark Blue Nine wrote @ March 14th, 2012 at 8:26 am
    Dark Blue Nine wrote @ March 14th, 2012 at 8:26 am
    If you know anything at all, you’d know Aldrin is on record for years indicating the moon is on the path to Mars. You’re a technician, no more, no less, with post graduate shine on your shoes, and worse, an advocate for commercial space desperate to tap the Treasury and fund LEO operations which are a ticket to no place. Planning space policy is outside the area of your competence.

  • DCSCA

    Space Adventures is a broker — a tourist firm– a booking agent– a middle man. It is not a ‘space program.’ If the Russians were not desperate for cash, they’ve have never gotten off the ground– and perhaps you should review their P&L statement. =eyeroll= W/o government assets to access, it’s not a space program at all.

  • DCSCA

    Aldrin has publicly stated the moon is part of the pathway to Mars. =sigh=

  • Dark Blue Nine

    “If you know anything at all, you’d know Aldrin is on record for years indicating the moon is on the path to Mars… Aldrin has publicly stated the moon is part of the pathway to Mars.”

    Which, for the umpteenth time, has nothing to do with the fact that you were using Aldrin to argue against commercial space, when, in fact, he’s a commercial space advocate.

    “Space Adventures is a broker — a tourist firm– a booking agent– a middle man. It is not a ‘space program.’”

    Which, for the umpteenth time, has nothing to do with the fact that you were claiming that there is no profit in space tourism, when, in fact, Space Adventures has been profitable for years.

    “You’re a technician… Planning space policy is outside the area of your competence.”

    I’ve worked space policy and budgets at the federal level and managed or had oversight for various federal space projects for almost two decades now.

  • DCSCA

    Dark Blue Nine wrote @ March 15th, 2012 at 8:34 pm
    There’s no evidence to support your claim.

  • DCSCA

    @Dark Blue Nine wrote @ March 15th, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    No, this claim: “I’ve worked space policy and budgets at the federal level and managed or had oversight for various federal space projects for almost two decades now.” Aldrin’s well documented history on advocating HSF on all fronts is not in dispute- he has always championed anything which keeps HSF, government exploration efforts or private exploitation efforts in the public discourse. =eyeroll=

  • Dark Blue Nine

    “No, this claim”

    Well, if you’re in a position to judge other people’s space policy, budgeting, and management credentials, then you should have enough knowledge on these topics to be able to answer very simple questions like:

    1) Is human space exploration an objective of NASA’s enabling act?

    2) Is commercial space a priority of the existing national space policy?

    3) How much did NASA spend in total on human space flight activities last fiscal year?

    4) Has a suborbital rockets ever flown higher than the ISS?

    After a couple decades in this field, I know the answers to these questions.

    Do you?

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