Lobbying « Space Politics

ProSpace responds regarding March Storm

By Jeff Foust on 2009 November 13 at 1:10 pm ET

After the Space Frontier Foundation announced yesterday that it planned to revive the citizen space lobbying effort March Storm in 2010, I was curious what the response of ProSpace, who had run the event for most of its history, might be. I got the following press release earlier today from ProSpace executive director Winn Phillips […]

March Storm to return in 2010

By Jeff Foust on 2009 November 12 at 12:45 pm ET

From 1995 through 2008 a group of space advocates (organized in most years by the grassroots lobbying group ProSpace) held an annual lobbying blitz on Capitol Hill called March Storm (so named for the month the event took place). ProSpace did not perform a March Storm in 2009, though, citing “resource and time limitations”. However, […]

More letter writing

By Jeff Foust on 2009 November 5 at 1:07 pm ET

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 […]

Impatient for change

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 31 at 2:50 pm ET

The sense of many in the space community this year has been one of impatience, bordering on frustration: with a new administration in place, they had been hoping for change in national space policy, or at least a confirmation of existing policy. Yet earlier this year people waited for months before the White House nominated […]

Save Space: catching on or falling short?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 25 at 1:13 pm ET

Florida Today provides an update today on the status of Save Space, a Space Coast effort to get half a million letters in support of space exploration delivered to the White House. The article gives the impression that the movement is gaining momentum (“catching on”, as the headline puts it; “gaining steam”, as the lede […]

Brief pre-Augustine notes

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 22 at 11:12 am ET

An op-ed in the Washington Examiner by three Republican House freshman, including Pete Olson of Texas and Bill Posey of Florida, stresses the importance of properly funding NASA and increasing its budget even though it might seem at odds with their philosophy of limited government. “We do not take spending $3 billion lightly, but […]

Brief notes

By Jeff Foust on 2009 September 29 at 7:56 am ET

At yesterday’s meeting on the Space Coast, speakers said Florida must demand that president fund an “ambitious” space exploration program, in large part to protect jobs there. Or, as Florida Today put it, “President Barack Obama is in for an earful from Florida elected officials and space industry leaders”. The event referenced the Save Space […]

Can a letter-writing campaign save Florida jobs?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 September 28 at 7:17 am ET

That’s the hope of a new effort on Florida’s Space Coast that’s launching today. Save Space, an effort led by Brevard County’s board of commissioners, is encouraging Floridians and other Americans to write letters to President Obama in support of the space program. The draft letters on the web site ask the president to:

add […]

Taking a chance with “the Deciders”

By Jeff Foust on 2009 September 2 at 1:11 pm ET

A Florida Today blog post references a video uploaded to YouTube this week about the Augustine committee and its work. The three-and-a-half-minute video is primarily clips from the various committee meetings, interspersed with other clips (Ares 1-X, Shuttle, Apollo moonwalk) and text slides, and without any voiceover:

The video itself is perhaps a bit subtle: […]

Still trying to close the gap

By Jeff Foust on 2009 August 26 at 1:10 pm ET

For many months one of the mantras in the space community was to “close the gap”: find money to extend the life of the shuttle, accelerate Constellation, or both, to minimize the gap in US human spaceflight access (at least by government vehicles). That battle cry has died down in recent months, particularly as the […]

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