Other « Space Politics

Tweaking the proposed export control reforms for hosted payloads and suborbital vehicles

By Jeff Foust on 2013 June 16 at 5:27 pm ET

Last month, as previously noted here, the Obama Administration released a draft version of the revised Category XV of the US Munitions List (USML), which covers satellites and related components. The release of the draft version started a comment period that lasts until early July, after which officials will review the comments before making any [...]

The National Academies wants you(r thoughts)

By Jeff Foust on 2013 June 11 at 7:57 am ET

The National Academies’ Committee on Human Spaceflight is continuing its congressionally-mandated study on the US human spaceflight program, with meetings of two of its panels planned for next week in California and Washington, DC. (The public and stakeholder opinions panel meeting in DC next week is primarily closed to the public, likely for good reason [...]

Asteroid mitigation, malaise, and property rights

By Jeff Foust on 2013 June 2 at 9:46 am ET

As previously noted here, Friday’s relatively close (cosmically speaking) flyby of asteroid 1998 QE2 provided NASA and the Obama Administration an opportunity to promote the agency’s asteroid initiative, including plans for an asteroid retrieval mission. That outreach did achieve one benchmark of effectiveness: the asteroid flyby made it into Friday’s White House press briefing, when [...]

Draft export control lists released

By Jeff Foust on 2013 May 25 at 9:14 pm ET

Last week, a Commerce Department official said that the administration’s long-awaited revisions to Category XV of the US Munitions List, which covers satellites and related components, would be published in draft form soon for public review. Those lists appeared as planned: Friday’s Federal Register includes both the draft revised Category XV list as well as [...]

Buzz Aldrin wants NASA to go to Mars, not grab an asteroid

By Jeff Foust on 2013 May 9 at 7:36 am ET

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has no shortage of opinions of what the US should be doing in space, and how. In a speech Wednesday at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, he emphasized his belief that NASA should be focused on sending people to Mars—to stay—and shouldn’t be distracted by other options, including [...]

People re-DSCOVR an existing program

By Jeff Foust on 2013 April 12 at 1:00 pm ET

While a proposed asteroid retrieval mission got the bulk of the attention in NASA’s 2014 budget proposal, another mission also got an outsized share of attention compared to its budget. A number of media reports played up the inclusion in the budget of funding for the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR. This spacecraft’s long, [...]

Briefs: New Mexico spaceport law, NASA sequestration effects, next CNES head, Garneau drops out

By Jeff Foust on 2013 March 14 at 6:53 am ET

Legislation that would extend liability indemnification to suppliers of vehicles operating from Spaceport America is now awaiting the signature of the governor of New Mexico. On Monday the New Mexico House passed unanimous a bill that previously passed in the state Senate. The bill, long sought by state officials and Virgin Galactic alike, would extend [...]

Polls raise new questions about interest in Mars exploration—and the polls themselves

By Jeff Foust on 2013 February 14 at 6:51 am ET

A report released two months ago concluded there was no national consensus on NASA’s strategic direction, including a lack of agreement on a long-term destination for human space exploration. Two polls released this week, each with their own issues, appear to have inadvertently confirmed that assessment.

A “preliminary snapshot report” of a poll commissioned by [...]

The World Series of export control reform is yet to come

By Jeff Foust on 2013 February 12 at 6:54 am ET

When Congress passed in December a defense authorization bill containing a long-sought satellite export control provision, the space industry understandably reacted with glee. However, as one leading proponent of such reform noted last week, the work in actually removing satellites and related components off the US Munitions List (USML), and thus no longer under the [...]

Congress planning an update to commercial launch legislation this year

By Jeff Foust on 2013 February 10 at 2:49 pm ET

While a planned reauthorization of NASA this year is attracting headlines, another space-related priority for members of Congress this year is a reauthorization of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) and an update of the Commercial Space Launch Act. At FAA/AST’s annual conference last week, members of Congress and their staffs outlined several [...]

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