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Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) got some attention late last week when he criticized the White House staff on a number of issues, including space. Nelson’s speech came a day after he reportedly “lit into” President Obama in a Senate caucus session. However, Nelson’s NASA-specific complaint, the “misconception that Obama wants to eliminate the manned space […] On Wednesday afternoon the co-chairmen of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, issued their proposal for reducing the federal budget deficit though a combination of discretionary spending cuts, mandatory spending savings, and tax reform. In particular, they identified $200 billion in “illustrative savings” in FY2015, $100 billion each […] A few miscellaneous items: NASA administrator Charles Bolden went to China and it was okay: In a statement this week, Bolden said his visit met its objectives, which including getting to know the Chinese space program and key officials as well as “reaching a common understanding of the importance of transparency, reciprocity and mutual benefit […] Is NASA administration Charles Bolden being pushed aside by the White House? That’s the claim of a Houston Chronicle article Saturday, cobbling together various events, ranging from controversy about his China trip to his now-infamous al-Jazeera interview, suggesting that the administration is considering replacing Bolden. (The article also claims that the administration slighted Bolden by […] Today may be a federal holiday, but that apparently won’t stop the president from signing into law the NASA authorization bill. NASA organized a last-minute telecon with agency officials and legislators to discuss the “anticipated signing” later this afternoon of the bill by President Obama. (How last minute? I didn’t receive notice about it until […] [Update: apparently the president won’t be signing the bill today; it’s not listed on his schedule for the day (although other bill signings are) and the bill is still listed under pending legislation on the White House web site.] According to a media advisory released late yesterday by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, President Obama is […] While an investigation by the NASA inspector general cleared administrator Charles Bolden of ethics law violations, he did not get off cleanly: the report concluded that Bolden’s actions were not “consistent with the Ethics Pledge he, as an Administration appointee, had signed”. That assessment was shared by a White House official, as noted in the […] What does the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) have in common with Congress? They’re both growing impatient with NASA for details on the agency’s commercial crew plans. The NAC’s commercial space subcommittee “expressed dissatisfaction with some of the information they have received from NASA managers on the agency’s approach” for commercial crew, Aviation Week reported. The […] 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 […] In this week’s issue of The Space Review, I provide an overview of the new policy and some reactions, particularly on areas of international cooperation and commercialization. While international cooperation is “woven throughout the new policy”, in the words of one White House official and there’s language in the policy (re)opening the door to space […] |
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