NASA « Space Politics

House to take up authorization bill this week after all

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 29 at 6:39 am ET

Space News reported late yesterday that the House may vote on the NASA authorization bill as soon as Thursday. That would indicate a bit of a shift from Tuesday, when one member indicated it was unlikely the House would take up the bill this week. Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX), who attended a Space Transportation Association […]

House approves Constellation language, but does it still matter?

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 29 at 6:14 am ET

Earlier this week the House approved the Senate version of an FY10 supplemental appropriations bill that includes a provision regarding NASA. That provision, which the Senate added in May, requires that FY10 Constellation funds “shall be available to fund continued performance of Constellation contracts, and performance of such Constellation contracts may not be terminated for […]

Wolf makes few predictions about the NASA appropriations process

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 27 at 9:05 pm ET

Senate appropriators have already taken a position on NASA funding with an appropriations bill that cleared the committee last Thursday. House appropriators, though, declined to take a stand on NASA’s human spaceflight program last month, deciding to defer to authorizers. Now that the House Science and Technology Committee has approved its own authorization bill, different […]

Commercial space advocates regroup

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 24 at 9:40 am ET

Meteorologically speaking, this is a good weekend to get away from Washington, DC: Saturday’s high temperature is forecast to be over 100 with a heat index approaching 110. The heat’s also been turned up recently for commercial space advocates in Washington, who have seen Congressional committees slash the White House’s budget proposals for commercial crew […]

House committee approves authorization bill with some changes

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 23 at 10:14 am ET

The House Science and Technology Committee approved on Thursday its version of a NASA authorization bill, HR 5781. The approval came after a long markup that considered over 30 amendments, adopting 23 of them (listed here). Among the most significant amendments were those that authorize an additional shuttle flight and also reduce the scope of […]

Senate committee makes quick work of NASA appropriations bill

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 22 at 9:23 pm ET

On Thursday the full Senate Appropriations Committee approved a Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill, just a day after the CJS subcommittee marked up the bill in a brief session. The text of the legislation is not yet available but the summary of the legislation released by the committee included this discussion of the NASA […]

Senate appropriators take up NASA spending bill today

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 21 at 6:33 am ET

The Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its FY11 appropriations bill, which includes NASA, in a session at 10 am today. The question is whether the subcommittee will follow the lead of Senate authorizers, or offer funding closer to the House authorization bill that offers far less for commercial crew programs […]

Loving NASA and other authorization bill reaction

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 21 at 6:26 am ET

What does the House version of the NASA authorization bill mean for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Houston Chronicle asked Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX), the ranking member of the space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee, and whose district includes JSC? “The first message is we love you,” Olson responded. (Hugs, anyone?) “[M]y […]

House readies its NASA authorization bill

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 19 at 8:17 pm ET

Late Monday the House Science and Technology Committee announced that it has completed its draft of a NASA authorization bill and plays a markup session Thursday morning (10 am, Rayburn 2318). The press release states that the committee “is releasing the legislative text of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010″, although […]

Obama and Glenn to talk about space policy today

By Jeff Foust on 2010 July 19 at 6:22 am ET

On President Obama’s schedule today is a meeting with former senator and astronaut John Glenn. (The meeting with one of the Mercury-era astronauts comes, ironically, the same afternoon as a different Mercury meeting for the president: an appearance with members of the Phoenix Mercury, last season’s WNBA champions.) The closed meeting, scheduled for about 2 […]

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