Multiple fronts and multiple obstacles to export control

Earlier this month, in a speech at the Ex-Im Bank in Washington, President Obama announced that an export reform proposal was in the works and would be released by Defense Secretary Robert Gates “within the next couple of weeks”. It’s been a couple of weeks since that speech and the reform proposal hasn’t been released […]

Who needs a Plan B when you can have a Plan A?

Appearing before the space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee yesterday, former Lockheed Martin executive Tom Young, a veteran of a number of space-related committees and reviews in the last decade, described his issues with the NASA budget proposal. During his testimony he made several references to a “plan A”. “A plan A […]

Florida rallies for jobs; New York’s very different shuttle fight

Hoping to raise awareness and attention to their concerns, Space Coast officials are planning an April 11 rally to protest the NASA budget proposal. Organizers are working with everyone from churches to businesses and hope to get 5,000 people to attend the event, scheduled for four days before the presidential space conference at the Kennedy […]

Senate appropriations hearing postponed

Late today the Senate Appropriations Committee announced that Thursday’s scheduled hearing of the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee on the NASA budget proposal has been postponed. The reason for the postponement is the series of votes on the Senate floor dealing with the health care reconciliation legislation. According to Space News the hearing has been […]

Other notes from Tuesday’s hearing

One interesting comment by NASA administrator Charles Bolden that got lost in the broader debate was his comments about developing a “common crew module” that could be launched on multiple vehicles, rather than have each potential commercial crew provider develop their own spacecraft. “One of the things I would like to do is to help […]

More talk (and denials) of a Plan B at NASA

The Wall Street Journal published an article earlier today claiming that NASA is “scrambling to come up with a new budget proposal” because of congressional criticism of the existing one. The article, first published just before today’s budget hearing and updated afterwards, includes comments by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), ranking member of the Commerce, Justice, […]

Briefly noted: closing down Constellation, Mitchell’s support, other commentary

One can expect the appropriations hearings this week to touch upon concerns from some members that NASA is already taking steps to shut down Constellation, contrary to language in the FY2010 appropriations bill for the agency. The Orlando Sentinel examines the issue and finds that while NASA is terminating some planned procurements, it is continuing […]

A busy week for hearings

NASA will be the subject of three hearings this week on Capitol Hill, including two by important appropriations subcommittees:

Tuesday at 2 pm the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing on the NASA budget proposal, with administrator Charles Bolden as the sole witness. Wednesday at 2 pm […]

Houston’s delegation optimistic about Constellation

On Thursday morning eight members of the House from the greater Houston area held a press conference with Houston mayor Annise Parker (at the podium above, flanked by the House members), who was visiting Washington in part to lobby to project jobs at the Johnson Space Center that might be jeopardized by NASA’s plans […]

Defending Constellation via the FAA

Supporters of NASA’s Constellation program are fighting for the program wherever they can, including in legislation that has nothing to do with NASA. On Thursday Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) announced that he was introducing an amendment to an FAA reauthorization bill that would reiterate an existing provision in the FY2010 appropriations legislation for NASA that […]