A former New Mexico governor is helping California’s space efforts

Bill Richardson (right) with Sir Richard Branson at Spaceport America in New Mexico in October 2010, near the end of Richardson’s second and final term as governor of the state. (credit: J. Foust)

The Albuquerque Journal reported today that former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who helped push through development of that state’s new […]

Site redesign (or, what to do while awaiting a hurricane)

There’s nothing that focusing the mind quite like a deadline—in this case, the impending arrival of Hurricane Sandy and likely power outages in the Washington, DC area that will ensue. With that in mind, I’ve pushed out a long-overdue redesign. Feel free to pass along any comments here or by email (jeff AT spacepolitics DOT […]

Florida Today endorses Romney, Nelson, and Posey

Florida Today, the newspaper that serves the Space Coast region of Florida, ised a series of endorsements for key races on Sunday, including Mitt Romney for president. The space policy positions of Romney versus those of President Obama didn’t play that much of a role: the four members of the newspaper’s editorial board split their […]

Dueling op-eds from the candidates

This week’s issue of Space News features a pair of commentaries from the campaigns of the two major presidential candidates, largely reiterating points previously made during the campaign. Representing the Obama campaign, former science and technology advisor Jim Kohlenberger first lays out the various accomplishments of the Obama Administration during its first term. (That includes […]

John McCain wants to put “a man or a woman on Mars”

Sen. John Mccain (R-AZ), who lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, was campaigning in Florida yesterday in support of President Obama’s 2012 opponent, Mitt Romney, including a stop on Florida’s Space Coast. While there, he briefly offered his thoughts on the US should be doing in space, specifically, the need for a […]

Briefly: Sentinel endorses Nelson; the Science Guy stumps for Obama in Florida

The Orlando Sentinel endorsed Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) for reelection on Sunday over his Republican challenger, Connie Mack IV. The editorial cited Nelson’s role as “a champion for NASA and Florida’s role in the U.S. space program” in its decision. “A law he co-authored in 2010 wisely extended the life of the International Space Station […]

Houston Chronicle cites space policy in its Romney endorsement

On Sunday, the Houston Chronicle formally endorsed Mitt Romney for president, four years after the paper had endorsed Barack Obama. The Chronicle’s editorial focused on a few major issues, including its disappointment with the Obama Administration’s approach to space:

It has been an insult to the memory of American heroes like Neil Armstrong and […]

Mack echoes the “no plan” criticism of NASA

A day after Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan claimed “we have effectively no plan” for NASA under the Obama Administration, a Republican candidate for the Senate in Florida offered similar criticism of current national space policy.

Speaking to reporters in Titusville, Florida, after a closed-door meeting with the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space […]

Ryan: “we have effectively no plan” for space under Obama Administration

During a town hall-style campaign stop Thursday in Ocala, Florida, Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan was asked what a Romney administration would do for NASA. As reported by The Hill, Ryan used the question to criticize the Obama Administration’s space policy—or, in his view, the lack thereof:

“The Obama administration came in […]

Mars food and other space waste highlighted in report

Dining Martians? Not exactly what NASA is doing. (The illustration is taken from the Waste Book 2012 report.)

Ask different people in the space community to identify wasteful spending at NASA and you’re likely to get a range of answers. Some will argue that NASA is wasting money by supporting three commercial crew competitors […]