By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 22 at 7:42 am ET At Wednesday’s House hearing on commercial spaceflight, Burt Rutan mentioned in passing that he would be meeting with new NASA administrator Mike Griffin later that day. That meeting did take place and NASA had provided a photo of it as part of a gallery of images of the new administrator. (See photo number 8.) Michael Huang, who pointed out the photo in an email, wonders if the two are looking at an illustration of a lunar lander or similar spacecraft. That certainly wouldn’t be out of the question, since Scaled Composites is on the team led by t/Space that has an exploration concept study contract with NASA.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 21 at 7:26 am ET Burt Rutan was the star witness at a House Science Committee space subcommittee hearing Wednesday on future markets for commercial spaceflight. Rutan, not surprisingly, used the hearing to argue that the current regulatory environment—cemented in place with the passage of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act last year—is not effective for “aircraft-like” commercial suborbital spacecraft. As he bluntly put it in his opening statement, the launch licensing process administered by FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) “just about ruined my program”. Later, he took a swipe at both AST and a company just down the flight line at Mojave Airport from Scaled Composites:
In fact, while my company was already flying initial test flights and waiting for time-critical responses from AST, during 2003 and 2004, AST found time to expend extensive resources processing and awarding a launch license to a company that did not even have a vehicle in construction, or even funding for the project!
While he didn’t explicitly state it, he appeared to be referring to XCOR Aerospace, which received an AST launch license a year ago, a few weeks after SpaceShipOne got its license. (Disclaimer: in my day job I do work with AST, but not with anything regarding licensing.)
However, Rutan’s comments didn’t elicit much of a reaction from members of the committee, many of whom were instrumental in getting the CSLAA passed last year. Rutan’s comments were not mentioned in the official post-hearing subcommittee press release, although they were alluded to in a separate press release by the committee’s Democratic Caucus. Mark Udall (D-CO), the ranking member of the subcommittee, did ask Rutan for more information on the regulatory process, and said in the release that he received “some very constructive comments on the need to ensure that safety is properly addressed.” Overall, though, the subcommittee’s members spent far more time heaping praise on Rutan that debating regulatory issues.
One area where Rutan did get more traction from the subcommittee was on export control issues. Rutan and Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, both noted that they had run into obstacles dealing with export control issues (an issue because, although the “SpaceShipTwo” vehicle Scaled is building for Virgin will not initially be exported, Virgin is a UK company) that has delayed Virgin’s formal order for the spacecraft. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) used this as another opportunity to lobby for a “two-tier” export control regime that would loosen export control regulations when dealing with allied nations. At the end of the hearing, subcommittee chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA) promised to work with Rohrbacher on these issues.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 21 at 6:51 am ET Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), the new chairman of the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, issued a press release on the occasion of the subcommittee’s first hearing this year, on ISS research. In the release Hutchison promised “a reinvigorated subcommittee that oversees and works with NASA leaders” on ISS research and (presumably) related issues. Reading that, I couldn’t help but see that as a subtle dig at the former subcommittee chairman, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), who chaired hearings in the previous Congress on a diverse range of issues, from Saturn to NEOs to international space exploration efforts. Frequently, those hearings were poorly attended by members of the subcommittee; sometimes only Brownback and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), or even just Brownback, were in attendance. The press release doesn’t make clear exactly how she plans to “reinvigorate” the subcommittee. Of course, if Hutchison does decide to mount a campaign for Texas governor in 2006, it will doubtless sap a lot of her time that might otherwise be spent on subcommittee issues.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 19 at 12:49 pm ET Here’s your chance to have breakfast with new NASA administrator Michael Griffin: just you and Mike—and 100 or so other people. Women in Aerospace will be hosting a breakfast on Tuesday, May 3, in Washington, with the new administrator as the keynote speaker. Details should be up on the WIA web site shortly, or you can read the flyer announcing the breakfast for location, costs, and reservation info.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 19 at 7:46 am ET People ask members of Congress to take all sorts of action on space-related issues: support the Vision for Space Exploration, fully fund NASA, keep Hubble operating, save Enterprise. Save Enterprise? The TV show? Yesterday I stumbled across an online ad that linked to this page, part of a grassroots effort to revive the show from cancellation. It asks people to contact their members of Congress and ask them to sign an attached letter to Viacom president Les Moonves. “If Star Trek can show that is has supporters in Congress, as was done to save the television show Bonanza over 30 years ago, the executives at Paramount will surely take notice, and perhaps grant Star Trek a much needed reprieve,” the note to legislators claims. Maybe I’m just cynical, but don’t you think members of Congress have bigger things to worry about?
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 18 at 7:54 am ET An editorial in today’s New York Times praises Michael Griffin for his comments during last week’s confirmation hearing (which the Times calls a “love fest”; where have we heard that before?) “Dr. Griffin showed an encouraging independence of mind and a willingness to abandon past NASA decisions that look increasingly myopic,” the editorial states, noting his willingness to reexamine the SM4 cancellation decision as well as ways to speed up the development of the CEV. One note of caution: “he seems to think that NASA has ample funds to pursue more than one mission and calls it crucial to protect the agency’s outstanding science programs. The test will come when budgetary choices have to be made.”
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 18 at 7:47 am ET In an article in this week’s issue of The Space Review, Sam Dinkin ranks a number of space policy options designed to improve space access or otherwise further commercial development of space. There are some interesting ideas here, such as subsidizing EELV developers on a per-launch basis rather than as a flat fee as currently instituted (to encourage additional launches), insurance reform, and government payment of range fees. It’s not clear any of these ideas have any support on Capitol Hill, though, at least at the moment.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 18 at 7:41 am ET While the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee will take up commercial spaceflight policy issues Wednesday morning, the Senate Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee will be meeting at the same time for a hearing on ISS research. Two panels of speakers are planned, including NASA associate administrator Bill Readdy and astronaut Mike Fincke. Sen. Hutchison, who chairs the subcommittee, had been planning a hearing on this topic for some time; she is also planning to hold a hearing, probably next month, on the future of the space shuttle.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 15 at 12:57 pm ET The House Science Committee’s space subcommittee will be holding a hearing this coming Wednesday, April 20 on “Future Market for Commercial Space”. The hearing, at the very least, promises some prominent names:
Panel I
- Mr. Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites, LLC; and
- Mr. Will Whitehorn, President, Virgin Galactic.
Panel II
- Mr. Elon Musk, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Space Exploration Technologies;
- Mr. John Vinter, Chief Executive Officer, International Space Brokers Group;
- Dr. Molly Macauley, Senior Fellow and Director of Academic Programs, Resources for the Future; and
- Mr. Wolfgang Demisch, President, Demisch Associates, LLC.
The hearing starts at 9:30 am EDT and, as usual, will be webcast.
By Jeff Foust on 2005 April 15 at 12:50 pm ET The AIAA’s National Capital Section in Washington will be holding a luncheon on April 28 to discussion military space issues. Josh Hartman, a staffer with the House Armed Services Committee, will discuss “HASC Priorities for Military Space” at the luncheon. See the AIAA-NCS web site for logistical details.
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