NASA operating plan makes final adjustments for fiscal year 2014

NASA has released a summary of its fiscal year 2014 operating plan, which details any changes to spending for programs the agency has made (with the approval of Congress) from the final FY14 appropriations bill. As the table below shows, the changes are very minor; last year, NASA made bigger changes to adjust spending for […]

House appropriations subcommittee approves NASA funding bill, with hints about other provisions

In a relatively short and very amicable markup Wednesday morning, the House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) subcommittee approved a fiscal year 2015 spending bill. The bill, released by the committee yesterday, provides about $17.9 billion for NASA in FY15, and the subcommittee made no changes to that section or other parts of […]

SpaceX court filings offer new details on EELV protest

While SpaceX decided not to post its official court filing on its “Freedom To Launch” website, as originally promised, the document was available through the court’s filing system by early Tuesday. A copy of the 36-page document is available here.

The document reiterates many of the points made by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Friday […]

House Science Committee swiftly approves new NASA authorization

In a 180-degree turn from just nine months ago, the House Science Committee approved a revised NASA authorization bill Tuesday in a brief session marked by bipartisan cooperation rather than partisan rancor.

The committee approved, on a voice vote, HR 4412, a NASA authorization bill that the committee’s space subcommittee marked up on April 9. […]

Science, aeronautics, explorations all receive increases in draft House NASA appropriations bill

In advance of Wednesday morning’s markup, the House Appropriations Committee released its draft of a Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill Tuesday morning. The bill is rather generous to NASA, providing the agency with nearly $17.9 billion for fiscal year 2015, an increase of $435 million over the president’s budget request (PBR) and $250 […]

Will new Russia sanctions block satellite exports?

On Monday, the State Department announced a new round of sanctions against Russia to protest its actions in the ongoing Ukraine crisis. Specifically, the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) “will deny pending applications for export or re-export of any high technology defense articles or services regulated under the U.S. Munitions List to […]

SpaceX EELV suit updates

Late Friday evening, SpaceX issued a press release confirming what the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, announced earlier in the day: that the company was filing suit to protest the Air Force’s block buy EELV contract with United Launch Alliance (ULA). Besides going over the rationale for their protest, the company also used the release to […]

House and Senate to tackle NASA policy and budget issues this week

Congress is back from spring break, and that means a busy week in both the House and Senate as three different committees hold hearings and markup legislation involving both NASA policy and its fiscal year 2015 appropriations.

On Tuesday afternoon, the full House Science Committee will mark up HR 4412, the updated NASA authorization bill. […]

SpaceX files suit over EELV block buy contract

In a sharp escalation of the ongoing debate over military launch contracts, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced Friday afternoon that the company was filing suit against the Air Force to formally protest a “block buy” contract the service made with United Launch Alliance.

In a hastily-arranged press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, […]

Arizona passes spaceflight liability bill

The governor of Arizona has signed into law a bill that provides commercial spaceflight companies in the state with liability protections similar to those in several other states. Gov. Jan Brewer signed HB2163 on Wednesday, a days after both the Arizona Senate approved an amended version of the bill and the state House then concurred […]