NASA « Space Politics

More on “saving” NASA Langley

By Jeff Foust on 2008 December 12 at 6:50 am ET

An article in today’s Daily Press newspaper follows up on an earlier report about concerns people in the Hampton Roads region have about the future of NASA’s Langley Research Center. “About 20 people” gathered at a luncheon organized by William Harvey, president of Hampton University, to brainstorm ways to preserve the center, which they fear […]

Is the new administration charged up about space solar power?

By Jeff Foust on 2008 December 12 at 6:15 am ET

The Wall Street Journal notes something that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention outside the space community: the apparent interest in Obama’s NASA transition team in space solar power (SSP). The transition web site, Change.gov, has been posting materials it has received and soliciting comments; one of those documents posted late last month was a […]

Transition turmoil

By Jeff Foust on 2008 December 11 at 1:32 pm ET

If you have not already read this Orlando Sentinel article about conflicts between NASA leadership and the Obama transition team please stop and read it right now. It’s a remarkable situation, from claims that NASA is “scripting” what employees and contractors tell the transition team to reports of a “heated” conversation between the head of […]

NASA situation “as bad as it’s been in the last 10 to 15 years”

By Jeff Foust on 2008 December 9 at 7:40 am ET

While members of the Texas Congressional delegation are gearing up to defend NASA against budget threats, real or perceived, supporters of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia are planning similar action. The Daily Press newspaper reports that the president of Hampton University is planning a luncheon to “get the community’s leadership re-engaged in the process […]

Griffin: what makes an effective prize?

By Jeff Foust on 2008 December 7 at 4:26 pm ET

An addendum to yesterday’s post about NASA administrator Mike Griffin’s speech Friday on the space agency’s commercialization efforts. Since the speech was part of a ceremony recognizing Armadillo Aerospace for winning the largest prize awarded to date in NASA’s Centennial Challenges to date, one would expect Griffin to talk about prizes in general, and that […]

Griffin on parabolic, suborbital, and other commercialization

By Jeff Foust on 2008 December 6 at 3:43 pm ET

On Friday NASA hosted a ceremony recognizing Armadillo Aerospace for winning Level One of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, one of the agency’s Centennial Challenges prizes. There were congratulatory speeches, the presentation of an oversized check, and photo opportunities. Mixed in with all this were some new announcements about commercialization efforts by NASA by […]

False alarm?

By Jeff Foust on 2008 December 6 at 2:38 pm ET

In an editorial in Saturday’s edition, the Houston Chronicle sounds the alarm: NASA’s budget in under attack. “There is talk in Washington that those mind-boggling outlays for the nation’s economic recovery could come at NASA’s expense – significant cuts in the space agency’s budget,” the editorial claims. Later: “But one wonders: Why is such a […]

Job interview questions for the next NASA administrator

By Jeff Foust on 2008 November 25 at 7:05 am ET

The GAO released a report Monday on “eliciting nominees’ views” on various management challenges facing government agencies, including NASA. The NASA section, which starts on page 96 (p. 101 of the PDF document), features 13 questions divided into five themes the GAO had previously identified facing the agency in the transition: retirement of the shuttle, […]

A double dose of Stern commentary about NASA

By Jeff Foust on 2008 November 24 at 7:36 am ET

Today’s New York Times features an op-ed by former NASA associate administrator Alan Stern on NASA’s cost overrun problems. Using Mars Science Laboratory (at least $2 billion now, triple original cost projections) and the James Webb Space Telescope (about a fivefold increase over original projections of around $1 billion) as examples, Stern argues that NASA […]

Examining alternatives to the Vision

By Jeff Foust on 2008 November 18 at 8:52 am ET

In an article in this week’s issue of The Space Review, I look at a couple new alternatives to the current exploration plan, both the exploration roadmap by The Planetary Society announced last week as well as a brief paper by Neal Lane and George Abbey released last week by a progressive think tank, the […]

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