By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 16 at 8:05 am ET John McCain is scheduled to make a campaign stop Friday afternoon in Melbourne, Florida, and Florida Today reports that McCain will bring up his support of NASA during the speech: “Campaign spokesmen said the Republican presidential candidate will confirm his support for a $2 billion increase for the NASA budget.” Such a statement, coupled with other recent comments from campaign officials, could help erase any ambiguity or uncertainty about exactly how McCain would fund NASA if elected, something Democrats have exploited in recent weeks as McCain has talked about a budget freeze that would include most non-defense discretionary programs.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 16 at 7:56 am ET President Bush has signed into law HR 6063, the NASA Authorization Act of 2008, which Congress passed in late September. It was part of a group of bills that the President signed on Wednesday, and he made no public statement about this specific bill. Beyond the funding authorizations in the bill (which are unlikely to be matched by the actual appropriations once the Congress approved a final FY09 spending bill) the bill is probably best known for directing NASA to take “all necessary steps” to add an additional shuttle flight to the manifest to fly the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment to the ISS (although there is an escape clause for NASA to not fly the mission if it can’t be performed before the end of 2010 or would create “significant” increased costs or “unacceptable” safety risks). It also requires NASA to suspend through the end of April 2009 any activities that would prevent the shuttle’s life to be extended beyond 2010. There are, of course, a lot of other low-profile yet interesting provisions tucked away into the bill as well.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 15 at 8:43 am ET Up until earlier this week, Rep. Nick Lampson was perhaps the incumbent House Democrat most in danger of losing reelection, given the demographics of his district. (Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL) can probably now claim that dubious honor, for reasons that have nothing to do with district demographics). Lampson, whose district includes NASA’s Johnson Space Center, got a boost this morning when he won the endorsement of the Houston Chronicle. The editorial cites Lampson’s influence on space policy as one of the reasons the paper supports him over Republican challenger Pete Olson:
Equally as important, if Lampson wins he will be in a position to use his accumulated seniority to head a key House subcommittee overseeing NASA during the next session. He holds a strong commitment to increased funding for manned spacecraft development in the future.
The subcommittee is the space subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee; its current chair, Mark Udall (D-CO), is leaving the House to run for the Senate.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 15 at 8:18 am ET In Canada’s federal elections yesterday, Marc Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut, won a seat in Parliament representing the Westmount-Ville-Marie riding in the Montreal area. Garneau, a Liberal, is succeeding a retiring liberal MP, Lucienne Robillard, who had won the previous four elections there. Garneau had previously run for the House of Commons in another riding west of Montreal, losing to an incumbent Bloc Québécois candidate in early 2006. Overall, however, the Liberal party lost seats in Parliament, although the ruling Conservative party failed to secure a majority.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 13 at 1:16 pm ET Florida Today> this morning published a very brief statement by the McCain campaign designed, it seems, to rebut Democratic criticism that a President McCain would freeze NASA’s budget if elected. The statement, credited to Mario Diaz, Southeast Regional Communications Director for the McCain campaign:
Recently John McCain sent a letter to the President about the strategic challenge that our reliance on the Russians poses to the United States, and the need to preserve the option to continue shuttle flights beyond 2010. We must also redouble our efforts to advance progress on the Constellation program by committing to the additional funding needed to speed up progress to close the space gap.
Update 10/14 8:30 pm: The Hill reports that McCain would provide a “specific carve-out for spending on science”, exempting it from the budget freeze he’s proposing for other non-defense discretionary spending if elected. Senior policy advisor Ike Brannon told the newspaper that NASA’s funding would increase, but did not specify to what degree.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 12 at 11:20 am ET Today’s Florida Today features an editorial endorsing Bill Posey for the Congressional seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Dave Weldon. Posey, a Republican, is running against Democrat Steve Blythe (who beat out a staunchly pro-space candidate in the Democratic primary in August) and two independents. The editorial argues that Posey will be a “strong advocate for NASA and its moon plan”, in part because of his work as a state legislator to get state support for the Cape.
By contrast, the editorial argues, Blythe’s “opposition to NASA’s manned moon program, saying it’s not worth the cost, is a huge mistake the Space Coast cannot afford.” That appears to be something of a misreading of Blythe’s rambling space policy document, unless Blythe has said otherwise in campaign speeches or ads. In the document Blythe calls the current plans to develop Constellation, including human missions to the Moon, “an appropriate goal for NASA”. Where he parts ways with the long-term vision is with plans for a lunar base or human missions to Mars. “I have expressed some concern that I have not seen justification for manned stations on the moon,” his policy states. As for Mars, “the extended time required, and the cost and danger of such missions combined with advancements in robotics makes a manned mission to mars [sic] a wonderfully romantic concept but hardly a rational one at this time.” [Emphasis in original.] His skepticism about lunar bases and current opposition to human Mars missions may not be as expensive a mistake for the Space Coast, at least in the near term, as the Florida Today editorial makes it out to be.
Blythe, though, does win the endorsement of the Orlando Sentinel in an editorial today. Interestingly, the editorial makes no mention of space in its decision, but space does come up elsewhere in the same editorial when the paper endorses Democrat Suzanne Kosmas in her bid to unseat Republican Congressman Tom Feeney in the neighboring 24th district. Feeney is “a steadfast advocate for the U.S. space program”, the editorial argues, but that position is not enough to offset the paper’s concerns about Feeney on other topics. Kosmas, meanwhile, “supports the space program, but she’d also direct resources at the space center toward developing alternative energy.” That support of alternative energy research at NASA isn’t reflected in her brief space policy statement on her campaign site, which states she would fully fund NASA and minimize the impact of the Shuttle-Constellation gap.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 10 at 7:55 pm ET World Space Week is a relatively obscure observance, virtually unknown outside the space community and not universally known inside it. Yet the event, which this year ran from October 4 to today, prompted statements from both presidential candidates. On Sunday the Obama campaign issued its statement, and yesterday the McCain campaign quietly released its own World Space Week statement. While the McCain statement is longer, it’s full primarily of glittering generalities, expressing overall support for space exploration and promising that, as president, McCain would “ensure that America continues its leadership in space”.
The one place where he does draw some comparisons between himself and Obama is one passage where he refers to Obama’s change of position (or flip-flop, depending on your point of view) on space policy earlier this year:
At the same time, space is a great tool to promote peace and international cooperation. Therefore, we must explore all options to complete and fully utilize one of the great achievements of mankind, the International Space Station National Laboratory. It represents a tremendous investment of public funds and should not be put at risk by cutting funding for NASA programs as my opponent in this election had previously proposed. This may be his definition of change, but it is not the type of change that the nation or the world needs.
Those who hoped that McCain would use the opportunity to refine or expand his space policy, or address continued Democratic claims that he would jeopardize NASA’s future by freezing its budget along with other discretionary programs, will be disappointed.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 10 at 7:00 am ET As part of a cabinet shakeup last week, the UK got a new science minister, Paul Drayson, a businessman who has a PhD in robotics. And within days of taking office, he is making waves by endorsing the concept of a UK astronaut program, as The Guardian reported earlier this week. The British government is studying whether it should reverse its long-standing opposition to human spaceflight, which would allow Britons to become part of ESA’s astronaut corps.
Lord Drayson said that he believes that spaceflight is an “iconic” effort that can capture children’s interest in science. “I was nine when man landed on the Moon and I know how things have an influence on the young generation,” he told the BBC later this week. “What I need to do as science minister is make sure that the current generation of young people are as excited by science as I was.” As proof of this, he said his own children became enthused about space after a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, including his 11-year-old daughter, who he said was “committed” to becoming an astronaut.
“I recognize that there are issues around budgets and so forth,” he noted, according to The Times of London. “But I want us to take into account the value that there is in the iconic project, to inspire young people.”
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 9 at 10:47 pm ET NASA announced thursday that it will provide an “update” Friday on next year’s scheduled launch of the Mars Science Laboratory. MSL is the giant Mars rover with a correspondingly large—and growing—price tag. As Aerospace Daily reported last week (and others have reported in recent days), budget and schedule concerns could cause MSL to miss its 2009 launch window. The mission could slip until 2011 or, in a worst case if unlikely scenario, be cancelled outright.
The specter of cancellation spurred the Mars Society into action with an “urgent” statement posted on its web site this evening and emailed to members and others. “Due to budgetary overruns, NASA and Congress may cancel the Mars Science Laboratory, which is scheduled to be launched to Mars in October of 2009 – in a vote that could be held as soon as Friday!” the statement claims. The message asked members and other supporters of the mission to contact their members of Congress and “[d]emand that the MSL be given a chance to succeed!”
All members of The Mars Society and the general space community need to join together to save MSL. Please contact your United States Senators and Representatives and tell them that MSL must be saved. In a time when the taxpayers of the United States already feel that hundreds of billions of dollars of their money is being wasted on Wall Street bailouts, the cancellation of MSL will mean that our government will be wasting at least another $1.5 billion that could have accomplished a mission of historic importance for the American space program and led humanity further down the path of its search for the nature of life in the universe. Quitting now is not fiscally responsible, and even worse, is a betrayal of the can-do pioneer spirit that not only built the space program, but America itself.
There’s one problem here: there is no Congressional vote scheduled for tomorrow—or any time in the foreseeable future—about the MSL. In fact, Congress is not even in session right now, as its members are focused on the impending election. A decision to delay or cancel MSL would be made by NASA alone. Congress could try to override that decision, perhaps in language in the final FY09 appropriations bill (assuming one is completed), but by then the 2009 launch opportunity would likely be lost.
By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 9 at 8:42 pm ET The Barack Obama campaign formally announced the release of a new 60-second ad that mentions the space program, at least in a historical context, at the very beginning:
The campaign claims in a press release that the ad is “the first by either presidential candidate to highlight the space program”. However, as you can see, it repeats an anecdote from Obama’s youth shown before Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, and mentioned by the candidate other times earlier on the campaign trail.
More telling is the continued push in the language of the press release that continues to try to differentiate Obama and John McCain on space policy, particularly on budgets:
Obama has pledged to increase NASA funding to save Florida jobs and maintain America’s leadership in space. Senator McCain has pledged to freeze discretionary spending in his first year, which would negatively impact the space program.
To draw attention to the growing space gap between the candidates, Obama’s Campaign for Change teamed up with the Space Coast Labor Council yesterday to phone bank Space Coast residents and contrast Obama’s plans to invest in the region with McCain’s spending freeze. Prior to the phonebank, the campaign held a press conference with two workers recently laid off at Cape Canaveral. Rick Rinaldi, 58, and Kelvin Davis, 43, explained that they’d both been the victim of “budget cuts,†and were concerned about supporting their families and maintaining their quality of life. Davis told reporters of Obama’s plan to invest in saving Space Coast jobs, “my family and other families that have been affected by these layoffs, an these cut backs, would highly appreciate it. and would like it.†Rinaldi added of McCain’s plan to freeze spending, “how can you grow jobs if you are freezing government spending?â€
|
|
