Lampson a step closer to returning to Congress, and other space-related Texas primary news

A two-time former member of Congress who has been active on space issues won a Democratic primary for another Texas district last night. Nick Lampson won the primary for Texas’s 14th congressional district along the Gulf Coast south of Houston, currently held by Ron Paul, who is retiring. (The Republican nominee will be determined in […]

Congressional and other reaction to the SpaceX Dragon berthing

Perhaps it was the fact that the berthing took place on a Friday of a holiday weekend, with Congress in recess. Or, perhaps, members thought they said enough with the successful launch of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 in the early morning hours Tuesday. In any case, the reaction from members of Congress […]

Former astronaut a convert to the administration’s space policy

Former astronaut Mark Kelly—perhaps best known as the husband of former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords—reveals in an op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel that he initially was not a suporter of the Obama Administration’s change in direction for NASA. “I was not a fan at first of canceling the Constellation rocket program. I worried about what it […]

Export control reform bill introduced in Senate

Days after the House passed a defense authorization bill that includes an export control reform provision, a Colorado senator has introduced similar legislation in the Senate. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) announced Tuesday that he introduced the “Safeguarding United States Leadership and Security Act of 2012″ to provide for export control reform. The text of the […]

Space policy? It’s complicated

Shortly after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket placed the company’s Dragon spacecraft into orbit early Tuesday, the White House issued a congratulatory statement from John Holdren, the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Partnering with U.S. companies such as SpaceX to provide cargo and eventually crew service to the International Space Station is […]

Congressional reaction to the SpaceX launch

Although Tuesday morning’s launch by SpaceX of a Dragon spacecraft to the ISS was only the beginning of a complex test flight, some members of Congress were in a celebratory mood after the Falcon 9 rocket placed the Dragon into orbit. “The successful launch of today’s test flight of SpaceX to the International Space Station […]

Export control, spaceport measures added to defense authorization bill

Given how heated a topic like export control reform can be, yesterday was almost an anticlimax. At the beginning of debate on HR 4310, the defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2013, the House approved by voice vote a group of amendements deemed sufficiently non-controversial that they could be enacted without individual debate on each. […]

House and White House at odds over code of conduct language in defense bill

The House of Representatives is debating today HR 4310, the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization act. The legislation covers a very wide of issues, many of which attracted the attention of the White House in its Statement of Administration Policy (SAP), which stated that if the bill passes as currently written, senior advisors will recommend […]

Obama’s Florida campaign wants Romney to take a stand on space

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is campaigning in Florida today, which prompted President Obama’s campaign organization in the state to issue a statement calling on Romney to take a position on space policy. “Today, Floridians deserve to know if Mitt Romney agrees with his Republican allies in Congress or if he stands with President […]

An Iowa senator’s concerns about a California NASA center

The relationship between NASA’s Ames Research Center (ARC) and Internet search giant Google has occasionally attracted scrutiny. For the last few years H211, a holding company owned by top Google officials, has based several aircraft at the center’s Moffett Field, allowing them to be used by NASA for scientific flights as well as for other […]