Congress « Space Politics

More reactions to impending NASA planetary science cuts

By Jeff Foust on 2012 February 10 at 6:48 am ET

“The Mars program is one of the crown jewels of NASA. In what irrational, Homer Simpson world would we single it out for disproportionate cuts?” So asks Ed Weiler, who retired from NASA last year after serving as the agency’s associate administrator for science, in an interview with ScienceInsider. Weiler said he decided to leave […]

Cutting back the solar system

By Jeff Foust on 2012 February 9 at 6:33 am ET

On Monday the Obama Administration will release its fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, and NASA has its traditional budget briefing scheduled for Monday afternoon, which this year will include a “tweetup” with a handful of the agency’s Twitter followers (you can sign up through 5 pm EST today). The details about the budget are embargoed […]

New report to quantify effects of ITAR on aerospace industry

By Jeff Foust on 2012 February 7 at 6:30 am ET

A report expected to be released today could address one of the major obstacles to export control reform. The Wall Street Journal reports that an Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) report will quantify the effects that strict export control reforms have had on the aerospace industry since the late 1990s. According to the article, the move […]

Final FAA bill includes partial extension of CSLAA provision

By Jeff Foust on 2012 February 2 at 6:27 am ET

Yesterday House and Senate conferees released the final, compromise version of a long-delayed FAA reauthorization bill that Congress is expected to pass in the coming days. While the debate about the bill revolved primarily around labor provisions in the bill, the commercial space transportation industry was waiting to see if it would contain an extension […]

Key House Republican supports extension of CSLAA provision

By Jeff Foust on 2012 January 25 at 6:55 am ET

A member of the Republican leadership of the House said Tuesday he supports an extension of a provision that limits the ability of the FAA to enact commercial spaceflight safety regulations. In an op-ed published in the Daily Independent newspaper in Ridgecrest, California, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) discusses commercial spaceflight, in particular activities […]

Breakthrough on an FAA reauthorization bill; will it extend a CSLAA provision?

By Jeff Foust on 2012 January 21 at 11:10 am ET

National Journal reported late yesterday that House and Senate negotiators had reached a compromise on long-delayed reauthorization legislation for the FAA. The compromise involves organized labor provisions in the bill that had forced a long series of short-term extensions. The compromise clears the way for drafting a version that both houses can pass, a task […]

Science hoping for the best, preparing for the worst in FY13 budget

By Jeff Foust on 2012 January 20 at 6:36 am ET

Early month the White House will release its fiscal year 2013 budget proposal. While most of the details of that budget proposal have been, or very soon will be, nailed down, some organizations are making a last-minute push to lobby for funding for NASA science programs in particular. Others, though, worried about what the budget […]

Smith: Congress supports the JWST

By Jeff Foust on 2012 January 18 at 6:36 am ET

On the final day of last week’s meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Austin, Texas, attendees to made it to the morning plenary got a bonus speaker: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), a member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. In his brief comments he tried to assure the astronomers in the […]

Space telescopes, supercolliders, and the perils of big science

By Jeff Foust on 2012 January 10 at 11:26 am ET

Pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge has become increasingly expensive. In astronomy, that has meant larger telescopes, both on the ground and in space (in addition to increasingly complex planetary probes). In particle physics, it involves a series of larger and more powerful accelerators. However, one Nobel laureate fears that governments’ willingness to fund such […]

Former NASA head O’Keefe skeptical about sequestration

By Jeff Foust on 2011 December 20 at 10:22 am ET

Earlier this month NASA administrator Charles Bolden expressed optimism that “sequestration”, the term given to the across-the-bord budget cuts currently in place for fiscal year 2013 after the failure of the supercommittee to come up with a long-term deficit reduction plan, could be avoided by Congressional action in the coming year. “I donâ€™t think itâ€™s […]

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