Double jeopardy for commercial space next Wednesday?

The House Science and Technology Committee has released the witness lineup for its hearing next Wednesday, December 2, on “Ensuring the Safety of Human Space Flight”:

Mr. Bretton Alexander, President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation Dr. Joseph Fragola, Vice President, Valador Inc. Mr. Jeff Hanley, Program Manager, Constellation Program, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA Mr. John Marshall, […]

…and speaking of hearings

An intriguing hearing has popped up on the schedule of the aviation subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: “Commercial Space Transportation”. No other details about the hearing are listed, other than the date (December 2, 10 am).

The overall T&I committee is chaired by James Oberstar (D-MN), best known in space circles for […]

Global space capabilities and other hearings

The House Science and Technology Committee has released the list of witnesses for Thursday’s hearing on “The Growth of Global Space Capabilities”:

Marty Hauser, Vice President, Washington Operations & Research and Analysis, The Space Foundation J.P. Stevens, Vice President, Space Systems, Aerospace Industries Association Scott Pace, Director, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University Kai-Uwe Schrogl, […]

Praise and ridicule for Ares award

On Thursday Time magazine released its annual “best inventions” list. Topping the list as the best invention of the year, in the minds of the magazine’s staff, were NASA’s Ares rocket, dubbing the Ares 1 “a machine that can launch human beings to cosmic destinations we’d never considered before”. Nitpickers would note that the Ares […]

Hutchison to remain in the Senate

One of the more prominent space supporters in the Senate won’t be leaving as soon as previously planned. As both the Washington Post and The Hill report, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) plans to remain in the Senate at least through the Texas gubernatorial primary next March. Hutchison, who is running for governor against incumbent […]

House hearing on global space capabilities

The space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee has announced a hearing next week titled “The Growth of Global Space Capabilities: What’s Happening and Why It Matters”. The hearing will be Thursday the 19th at 10 am; no list of witnesses or hearing charter is available yet.

Letter writing update

If you recall last week’s post about a bipartisan “Dear Colleagues” letter to drum up support for increasing NASA’s budget, there’s a minor update. According to an updated blog post on NSS.org, the deadline for obtaining additional signatures, which had been November 5th, has been pushed back to November 17th. There’s no reason for the […]

Nelson backtracks?

Last Monday Sen. Bill Nelson claimed that the White House would make a decision about NASA’s future by around Thanksgiving, based on a recent visit he had with the president on the subject. However, in an interview with Florida Today, Nelson appears to be telling a different story. Asked about the timeline for a decision, […]

Now the real budget battle begins

Yesterday the Senate passed its version of HR 2847, the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill, which includes NASA. The bill funds NASA at $18.686 billion, the same level as requested in the White House budget proposal and more than $480 million above what the House passed earlier this year. This passage was spun in […]

More letter writing

While Save Space has gone into overtime in its bid to solicit a half-million letters to the White House on space exploration policy, members of Congress are also writing letters, to both fellow members of Congress as well as the White House. The Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday on the latest effort by Congressman Bill Posey […]