Lobbying « Space Politics

NASA operating plan may reverse Congressional increase in planetary science

By Jeff Foust on 2013 May 17 at 9:55 am ET

NASA’s operating plan for fiscal year 2013 will reportedly reverse the increases awarded to the agency’s planetary science program by Congress, according to a report. The Planetary Exploration Newsletter (PEN) reported Wednesday that the operating plan, which details any tweaks NASA plans to make to the final FY13 appropriations passed in March, will return planetary […]

Astronomers warn about NASA planetary funding cuts

By Jeff Foust on 2013 May 1 at 5:51 am ET

When President Obama spoke Monday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, to mark that institution’s sesquicentennial, space got only the briefest of cameos in his address, and even that managed to rub some scientists and space activists the wrong way. “Today, all around the country, scientists like you are developing therapies to regenerate […]

Reaction to the NASA budget proposal

By Jeff Foust on 2013 April 11 at 1:33 pm ET

The fiscal year 2014 budget proposal for NASA is, as previously noted, fairly similar to the agency’s 2013 proposal, with the notable exceptions of the new asteroid initiative and changes to NASA’s education programs as part of the administration’s broader STEM education consolidation. That may be why the budget has, so far, not gotten a […]

Petitions, full of sound and fury, signifyingâ€¦

By Jeff Foust on 2013 March 28 at 7:11 am ET

Back in December I noted the space advocacy community’s continued, if perhaps misguided, fascination with White House petitions. Petitions have been the tool of first resortâ€”and sometimes the tool of only resortâ€”to demand funding increases for NASA or other policy changes. The problem is that they often fail to reach the necessarily threshold (recently increased […]

Tweeting a solution to sequestration? Probably not.

By Jeff Foust on 2013 February 14 at 1:09 pm ET

With just two weeks before the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration are now scheduled to take effect (two months later than originally planned), organizations concerned about what those cuts could do to various agencies are stepping up their outreach and lobbying. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) is urging its members to reach out to […]

Scientists and advocates once again seek restoration of NASA planetary funding

By Jeff Foust on 2013 January 31 at 7:18 am ET

The Planetary Society released this week a statement prepared “in collaboration” with the planetary sciences divisions of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and American Geophysical Union (AGU) about the current state of NASA’s planetary sciences program. The organizations support NASA’s decision announced nearly two months ago to develop a Mars rover based on Curiosity for […]

In bold new fiscal era, space advocates need to be more effective

By Jeff Foust on 2012 December 28 at 12:00 pm ET

The so-called “fiscal cliff” and its across-the-board spending cuts are set to take effect on Wednesday, and the last week has seen little progress to a resolution to at least delay those cuts. Even if there is a breakthrough in the next few days, we’re likely heading into an era of constrained budgets. Is the […]

What can $300 million a year buy for NASA’s planetary program?

By Jeff Foust on 2012 November 15 at 9:00 am ET

In its continued quest to restore $300 million to NASA’s planetary science program, The Planetary Society described in a blog post this week what that restored funding could provide. According to “newly-formed internal budget numbers” provide to the organization from unnamed “sources within the planetary science community,” that additional funding could, in the long term, […]

Planetary Society congratulates Obama, asks for more planetary funding

By Jeff Foust on 2012 November 9 at 6:14 am ET

What do you do when the candidate who won the election was the one whose budget cut your favorite program? In the case of The Planetary Society, the answer is to congratulate himâ€”and ask him to reverse those cuts. In a statement Thursday, the organization congratulated President Obama on his reelection Tuesday while asking him […]

The Planetary Society looks ahead to planetary science funding in the 2014 budget

By Jeff Foust on 2012 October 13 at 6:47 pm ET

The space advocacy organization The Planetary Society has been pushing for months to try and undo the proposed cuts in NASA’s planetary science program in the 2013 budget proposal the administration released earlier this year. While the results of those efforts are yet to be determinedâ€”Congress has yet to pass a final 2013 appropriations bill […]

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