Congress is holding two hearings this week on space issues, and both will take place at roughly the same time. Wednesday at 1 pm the full House Science Committee is holding a markup session on several bills. Included in the list is the Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad Astronomy Awards Act (HR 912), which would establish an awards program for amateur astronomers who discover near Earth objects. Also on the schedule is the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 (no bill number yet), which is the revised version of the Commercial Space Act of 2003 (HR 3245) introduced last year, and discussed here last week. Both bills are sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA), chairman of the space subcommittee.
Meanwhile, the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a hearing Wednesday at 3 pm on “Mars Exploration”. The only witness for that hearing identified to date is Ed Weiler, NASA’s AA for space science. There is a chance that hearing could be delayed because all three Senate office buildings are closed today after ricin was discovered in the mailroom of Majority Leader Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN).
UPDATE Wednesday 10:30 am: Although the Commerce Committee’s web site still lists the hearing as scheduled for today, the building it is scheduled to take place in is still closed, so in all likelihood the hearing will be postponed.
