By Jeff Foust on 2014 January 16 at 6:41 am ET According to multiple reports yesterday, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has decided not to run for reelection in 2014. McKeon has not made a formal announcement of his plans, although there had been rumors for weeks that the congressman, first elected to his southern California seat in 1992, would […]
By Jeff Foust on 2013 September 19 at 9:12 am ET Sen. Barbara Mikulski wishes Antares and Cygnus luck as she watches the launch from her office, in this photo provided by her office.
The Antares rocket that lifted off Wednesday carrying Orbital’s first Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the ISS might be the biggest booster to launch from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, but arguably the […]
By Jeff Foust on 2013 April 3 at 7:06 am ET After many months of drama, the end was rather anticlimactic. On Tuesday, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez signed into law the New Mexico Expanded Space Flight Informed Consent Act in a ceremony at Spaceport America in the southern part of the state. The bill extends the state’s existing commercial spaceflight liability indemnification to suppliers of […]
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 […]
By Jeff Foust on 2013 January 23 at 7:16 am ET That didn’t take long. Last week the New Mexico Legislature began its 2013 session, with a revision to the state’s existing commercial spaceflight liability indemnification legislation a top priority. Backers of the state’s $209-million commercial spaceport, Spaceport America, were concerned that without a revision of the law, expanding it to include suppliers and other companies […]
By Jeff Foust on 2013 January 18 at 6:45 am ET On Tuesday, the New Mexico Legislature convened for its 2013 session, and one of the key issues it will be dealing with, albeit indirectly, is the future of Spaceport America, the commercial spaceport in the southern part of the state. The $209-million facility’s major elements are nearly complete and its anchor tenant, suborbital spaceflight company […]
By Jeff Foust on 2012 October 30 at 7:32 pm ET Bill Richardson (right) with Sir Richard Branson at Spaceport America in New Mexico in October 2010, near the end of Richardson’s second and final term as governor of the state. (credit: J. Foust)
The Albuquerque Journal reported today that former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who helped push through development of that state’s new […]
By Jeff Foust on 2012 August 22 at 1:38 pm ET [ Apologies for the lack of posts recently, a combination of travel, a heavy workload, and illness. ]
In his first stint as governor of California in the 1970s, Jerry Brown earned the sobriquet “Governor Moonbeam” in part for his interest in space topics, including a proposal that California have its own satellite to support […]
By Jeff Foust on 2012 February 28 at 8:49 am ET For the last several years there has been a flurry of activity at the state level in the form of legislation and other initiatives to support commercial space ventures: tax policies, liability indemnification, support for spaceport projects, and so on. This year, for example, the Florida legislature is working on legislation to support spaceport efforts […]
By Jeff Foust on 2012 January 11 at 8:20 am ET Today, as Florida legislators ramp up their activities for the 2012 session, they’ll be visited by representatives of the state’s space industry for Florida Space Day. This annual event is designed to raise awareness among legislators of the industry and advocate for measures to help support it. As the Space Florida release suggests, industry will […]
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