NASA « Space Politics

House and Senate advance their appropriations bills

By Jeff Foust on 2012 April 20 at 6:49 am ET

The full Senate Appropriations Committee approved its Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill Thursday morning, two days after the CJS subcommittee performed its markup of the bill. That spending bill provides a little more than $17.7 billion for NASA and transfers funding for weather satellite programs from NOAA to NASA. There were […]

House offers a slightly smaller NASA budget

By Jeff Foust on 2012 April 18 at 1:23 pm ET

The House Appropriations Committee released Wednesday morning its proposed Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill, which includes $17.573 billion for NASA, $138 million less than the administration’s budget proposal. This budget includes $1.025 billion for Orion and $1.857 billion for the Space Launch System, of which just over $400 million would go to ground […]

NOAA concerns overshadow NASA in Senate appropriations bill

By Jeff Foust on 2012 April 18 at 7:31 am ET

If you looked at only the first sentence of the NASA section of the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill summary released by the Senate Appropriations Committee after its markup of the bill Tuesday afternoon, you might have jumped for joy. “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is funded at $19.4 billion, an increase of […]

Senate appropriators to mark up NASA spending bill Tuesday

By Jeff Foust on 2012 April 15 at 7:40 pm ET

Congress is returning from spring break this week, and at least in the Senate they’re wasting no time getting down to business. The Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee will be marking up its proposed appropriations bill for FY 2013 on Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 pm EDT. That appropriations […]

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

By Jeff Foust on 2012 April 13 at 10:47 am ET

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 […]

Hutchison and Nelson on the same page regarding NASA

By Jeff Foust on 2012 April 10 at 6:33 am ET

Literally on the same page. The two co-authored an op-ed that appeared Monday in a few different publications, ranging from the Sacramento Bee to the Bangor Daily News. The essay gives them the opportunity to restate their vision for NASA, including the agreement Congress and the White House reached last year that identified development of […]

Briefly: Mikulski’s supernova, Brown’s letter, Palazzo’s public-private support

By Jeff Foust on 2012 April 5 at 8:11 am ET

What do you get the senator who has been one of the biggest supporters for space-based astronomy? How about an exploding star! The AP reports that a supernova will be named after Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) at a ceremony Thursday in Baltimore to inaugurate a new archive facility at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The […]

“60 Minutes” segment becomes a political football

By Jeff Foust on 2012 April 4 at 1:20 pm ET

Sunday night, the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” aired a segment (video above) on the impact the retirement of the Space Shuttle program has had on Florida’s Space Coast, including profiling some of the people who lost their jobs as a result and the broader economic impact on the community. It’s hard not to sympathize […]

House members have concerns about ISS commercial cargo and CASIS

By Jeff Foust on 2012 March 30 at 7:08 am ET

Wednesday’s hearing of the full House Science Committee on the utilization of the International Space Station (ISS) was relatively lightly attended, with only a handful of members of the committee (including its newest member, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)) questioning the assembled witnesses. The committee’s concerns focused on two issues: whether commercial cargo providers will enter […]

In the Senate, more criticism of commercial crew

By Jeff Foust on 2012 March 29 at 8:49 am ET

Wednesday afternoon’s hearing by the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee revealed few new insights about NASA’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal or Congress’s reaction to it. However, it did emphasize that commercial crew, and the amount of funding NASA is requesting for the program, is one of the most sensitive […]

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