White House « Space Politics

Nelson backtracks?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 November 9 at 6:51 am ET

Last Monday Sen. Bill Nelson claimed that the White House would make a decision about NASA’s future by around Thanksgiving, based on a recent visit he had with the president on the subject. However, in an interview with Florida Today, Nelson appears to be telling a different story. Asked about the timeline for a decision, […]

Flexible paths, flexible deadlines?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 November 6 at 7:38 pm ET

A couple of exploration policy items from Space News: NASA administrator Charles Bolden told the publication that the so-called “flexible path” option of the Augustine report is “attractive to everybody”. That option defers a human return to the lunar surface in favor of missions to lunar orbit, Lagrange points, and near Earth asteroids in the […]

More letter writing

By Jeff Foust on 2009 November 5 at 1:07 pm ET

While Save Space has gone into overtime in its bid to solicit a half-million letters to the White House on space exploration policy, members of Congress are also writing letters, to both fellow members of Congress as well as the White House. The Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday on the latest effort by Congressman Bill Posey […]

A Thanksgiving decision on NASA’s future?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 November 2 at 12:52 pm ET

A decision on the future on NASA’s human spaceflight program could be coming in time for Thanksgiving, according to a key senator. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) told WFTV in Orlando that he expects President Obama to make a decision “sometime around the Thanksgiving holiday” on which direction he wants to take the space program. Nelson […]

Impatient for change

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 31 at 2:50 pm ET

The sense of many in the space community this year has been one of impatience, bordering on frustration: with a new administration in place, they had been hoping for change in national space policy, or at least a confirmation of existing policy. Yet earlier this year people waited for months before the White House nominated […]

Save Space: catching on or falling short?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 25 at 1:13 pm ET

Florida Today provides an update today on the status of Save Space, a Space Coast effort to get half a million letters in support of space exploration delivered to the White House. The article gives the impression that the movement is gaining momentum (“catching on”, as the headline puts it; “gaining steam”, as the lede […]

Final WH decision: wait till February?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 22 at 8:42 pm ET

Shortly after the Augustine committee released its final report, Alan Ladwig of NASA spoke at the luncheon of the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in New Mexico. Ladwig, filling in for deputy administrator Lori Garver (who was scheduled to speak but stayed in Washington because of the report’s release) did briefly address the […]

Report: White House considering NASA budget increase

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 17 at 10:57 am ET

The Augustine committee’s final report is now expected out next week (something the committee confirmed in a Twitter posting Friday morning) but a draft version of that report is already at NASA and the White House, Space News reported. The article, citing “sources both within the administration and close to it”, states that the administration […]

The White House, Sudan, and a meteorite

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 17 at 10:44 am ET

Just over a year ago astronomers discovered a tiny asteroid headed for the Earth. The asteroid, thought to be no more than a few meters across, entered the Earth’s atmosphere over northern Sudan and burned up, causing no damage but creating a shower of tony fragments, some of which have been recovered by scientists.

However, […]

Florida’s turn

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 16 at 9:34 pm ET

Last week the Orlando Sentinel reported that Florida’s Congressional delegation was considering a call for reallocation of stimulus funds to NASA much like the Texas delegation has requested. On Friday the office of Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas announced that Florida’s delegation has done just that, requesting in a letter to President Obama that he shift “at […]

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