White House « Space Politics

Dubious commentaries

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 16 at 7:15 am ET

An editorial in Friday’s Florida Today offers a warning—or maybe a threat—to President Obama: increase NASA’s budget or “it will come back to haunt him at Florida’s ballot box”. The editorial claims that “among the reasons Obama won Florida last year was his NASA promise gained him votes in the critical Central Florida corridor.” Yet […]

A step towards ITAR reform, or something else?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 15 at 9:17 pm ET

The Washington Times reported today that the Obama Administration has quietly moved to shift authority for approval of missile and space technology to China. Under a presidential determination issued on September 29, the president delegated authority to the Secretary of Commerce “the functions of the President under section 1512 of the National Defense Authorization Act […]

Please, sir, we’d like some more stimulus

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 6 at 8:40 am ET

Yesterday most of the Texas Congressional delegation—both senators and 26 of its 32 representatives—sent a letter to President Obama asking him to direct additional stimulus funding to NASA. Specifically, the letter requested that the White House request a redirection of $3 billion in stimulus funding from unspecified programs to NASA to provide initial basis for […]

Another Augustine meeting; another request for money

By Jeff Foust on 2009 October 3 at 11:24 am ET

NASA announced Friday that the Review of US Human Space Flight Plans Committee will hold another meeting on Thursday the 8th via teleconference. The purpose of the meeting is the “finalization of scoring of options the committee presented in their summary report” released last month. (The meeting is being held via teleconference and the public […]

Can a letter-writing campaign save Florida jobs?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 September 28 at 7:17 am ET

That’s the hope of a new effort on Florida’s Space Coast that’s launching today. Save Space, an effort led by Brevard County’s board of commissioners, is encouraging Floridians and other Americans to write letters to President Obama in support of the space program. The draft letters on the web site ask the president to:

add […]

“Unconvinced that there is a guiding vision”

By Jeff Foust on 2009 September 24 at 7:21 am ET

That’s part of a quote from a member of Congress who met with NASA administrator Charles Bolden Wednesday and came away with that sense of uncertainty about the future of NASA’s human spaceflight program. “I left the meeting unconvinced that there is a guiding vision for the future of manned spaceflight in the United States,” […]

Bolden’s ethics waiver

By Jeff Foust on 2009 September 5 at 2:26 pm ET

On Friday afternoon the White House announced that it was publishing the waivers to its stringent ethics policy it had granted to a handful of officials since the beginning of the administration. The ten waivers released Friday include the one granted to Charles Bolden, the new NASA administrator; others include Attorney General Eric Holder and […]

NASA and the administration’s space policy review

By Jeff Foust on 2009 July 23 at 1:14 pm ET

It’s been known for some time that the administration is embarking on an overall review of national space policy, one that goes beyond the current Augustine committee review of NASA’s human spaceflight plans. That’s not unprecedented: previous administrations have done similar reviews and updates of national space policy, which can last for several years (in […]

It’s official

By Jeff Foust on 2009 May 23 at 9:01 am ET

Florida Today reports this morning that the White House has officially nominated Charles Bolden to be NASA Administrator, and also nominated Lori Garver as Deputy Administrator. This confirms reports this morning by the Orlando Sentinel and NBC News that a Bolden announcement would come Saturday.

The timing, it seems, was intended to be tied to […]

Announcement today?

By Jeff Foust on 2009 May 22 at 1:19 pm ET

According to the Orlando Sentinel, “the buzz around the White House today is that the NASA press corps should expect a late-in-the-day announcement” that would presumably be the president’s nomination for NASA administrator. If so, the timing would be a bit odd: late in the afternoon before a three-day holiday weekend, with much of official […]

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