White House criticizes commercial crew language and funding in House bill

The House is scheduled to start debate today on HR 5326, the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill. (Depending on the number of amendments proposed, the bill may not be up for a final vote until Wednesday or Thursday.) Late yesterday, the White House issued a statement of administration policy (SAP) on the bill, outlining […]

Briefly: LeMieux’s space stance, Space Bonds, Utah SLS meeting

In a conversation a few days ago with Florida Today, Florida Republican Senate candidate George LeMieux offered support for a mix of government and commercial space efforts. LeMieux called SpaceX’s efforts in particular “very exciting” and that “you’re going to see these people reach the International Space Station on a regular basis.” However, exploration beyond […]

House Appropriations Committee approves CJS bill

During a two-hour hearing on Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee debates and then approved by voice vote the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill. The committee made no amendments to the bill that affects NASA, which receives a little less than $17.6 billion in the bill.

In his statement introducing the bill, Rep. Frank […]

House appropriators seek changes to commercial crew

On the eve of the full House Appropriations Committee’s markup of the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) appropriations bill, the committee released its draft report accompanying the bill, which includes additional details and policy direction for the agencies funded by the legislation. While the bill itself included no specifics about NASA’s commercial crew program, the report […]

Administration responds to one pointed column

The transfer of the space shuttle Discovery to the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport outside Washington this week, complete with a flyover of the DC area, triggered a number of reactions, including some editorials critical of space policy and the current state of the nation’s space program. For example, in […]

House and Senate advance their appropriations bills

The full Senate Appropriations Committee approved its Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill Thursday morning, two days after the CJS subcommittee performed its markup of the bill. That spending bill provides a little more than $17.7 billion for NASA and transfers funding for weather satellite programs from NOAA to NASA. There were […]

Posey introduces spaceport infrastructure bill

Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL) introduced legislation Thursday that will make it easier for commercial entities to use and upgrade military launch infrastructure. The text of the “Revitalizing America’s Commercial Entrepreneurs (RACE) for Space Act”, HR 4401, hasn’t been posted yet, but Posey’s office said in a statement that it would allow commercial space companies to […]

House offers a slightly smaller NASA budget

The House Appropriations Committee released Wednesday morning its proposed Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill, which includes $17.573 billion for NASA, $138 million less than the administration’s budget proposal. This budget includes $1.025 billion for Orion and $1.857 billion for the Space Launch System, of which just over $400 million would go to ground […]

NOAA concerns overshadow NASA in Senate appropriations bill

If you looked at only the first sentence of the NASA section of the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill summary released by the Senate Appropriations Committee after its markup of the bill Tuesday afternoon, you might have jumped for joy. “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is funded at $19.4 billion, an increase of […]

Export control report due out today

From the “better late than never” department: according to several reports, including Defense News, the Defense Department will release the final so-called “Section 1248″ report about satellite export control reform later today. A press conference at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs is scheduled for midday today titled “Update on Space Export Control Reform”, […]