Packing the house for a Senate hearing

Adding to a busy week, the Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing Wednesday afternoon titled “The Path from LEO to Mars”. The hearing will start with an update on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, followed by a second panel of witnesses to discuss NASA’s “exploration portfolio” from low Earth orbit to Mars.

The Planetary Society […]

Disappointed advocates, advocating scientists

Don’t count the members of the space advocacy group the Space Frontier Foundation fans of either the Democratic or Republican parties’ positions on space. Last week they issued a press release critical of the Republican platform’s space language, suggesting it was as odds with broader party ideology. “NASA seems to be one Big Government program […]

NSS to step up plans to advocate for NASA human spaceflight programs

The National Space Society plans to increase its efforts to advocate for NASA’s human spaceflight programs in the near future, but will also act as a watchdog for at least one element of that effort, the space advocacy organization’s executive director said Thursday.

Paul Damphousse, who became NSS’s executive director early this year, told the […]

Planetary scientists seek unity as they gear up for a budget fight

While NASA administrator Charles Bolden was defending the administration’s budget request before House appropriators earlier this week, other NASA officials were left to explain the consequences of those cuts to an audience even less pleased with the proposal: the planetary sciences community.

“I wish I had a good succinct answer” for why NASA’s planetary science […]

AIAA members to lobby for human spaceflight and other issues this week

This Tuesday and Wednesday the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will be holding its annual Congressional Visits Day, where members meet with various congressional offices to discuss aerospace-related issues. Those topics are listed in its Key Issues document, and include “Facilitating Assured, Cost-Effective Human Access to Space” alongside others ranging from air traffic […]

NASA appropriations hearing scheduled; calls for action

The Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing on the NASA budget proposal for 2013 for this coming Wednesday, March 21, at 9 am Eastern time. The hearing will be webcast for those not able to attend in person. It’s like the proposed cuts in NASA’s […]

Briefly: Space blitz success, Senate hearing

The National Space Society (NSS) declared success in its latest Legislative Blitz it held on Capitol Hill last week with fellow member organizations of the Space Exploration Alliance (SEA). Blitz participants (about two dozen are included in a photo in the release) visited over 100 congressional offices over two days to discuss a range of […]

Advocates and professionals push back against proposed planetary cuts

The Mars Society released a statement over the weekend where, not surprisingly, it expressed strong opposition to the proposed cuts to NASA’s Mars exploration program contained in the agency’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal. “America’s planetary exploration program, in particular that involving the Red Planet, is one of the greatest chapters in the history of […]

One endorsement for Gingrich’s space position

Yesterday the space advocacy organization Tea Party in Space (TPIS) formally endorsed Newt Gingrich for the Republican presidential nomination. “Newt Gingrich is the only credible candidate in this primary race in Florida who has any credibility when it comes to America’s future in space,” TPIS president Andrew Gasser said in a statement. The organization said […]

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

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 […]