By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 30 at 9:17 am ET In a column in Friday’s issue of Florida Today, Congressmen Dave Weldon (R-FL) and Tom Feeney (R-FL), who represent the Space Coast, respond to John Glenn’s column of a day earlier on Kerry’s space policy. The response is pretty predictable, although I think they could do better than this line in response to Glenn’s statements on shuttle and station: “Exactly where Glenn gets his facts we do not know.” Somehow, I think Glenn has a closer connection to the Kerry campaign than either Weldon or Feeney.
Near the end of the editorial the two Congressmen refer to Weldon’s campaign web site, which features a press release blasting Kerry’s record on space, with a record of Kerry’s votes against the space station through 1996. (Not surprisingly, it omits those votes in favor of ISS Kerry cast in 1997 and 1998.)
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 29 at 8:13 am ET Florida Today has an article Friday about the space policy positions of Bush and Kerry. Not much new here, although Lori Garver does explain those claims that a Kerry administration would sharply reduce the number of shuttle flights:
Garver said Bush backers are stretching something she said in a Washington debate with Sietzen far out of context. Noone knows how many times the shuttle must fly to finish the station or do other jobs such as maybe repairing Hubble Space Telescope, she said.
“They’re trying to get Florida votes by scaring people,” Garver said.
Frank Sietzen’s response:
“The president’s policy has been out there since January 14th,” Sietzen said. “Senator Kerry waited until the virtual last minute to publish a conflicting and contradictory space policy statement. Looks like Halloween came early, and Kerry’s plan is the trick.”
A related point: Jim Oberg has an article for MSNBC stating NASA is indeed looking at ways to retire the shuttle early. Reducing the number of shuttle flights below 20, though, would make it impossible to fulfill international agreements unless an alternative assembly approach using ELVs can be developed.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 28 at 8:10 am ET In Thursday’s edition of Florida Today John Glenn has a column about John Kerry’s recently released space policy. One of the most notable comments is at the very beginning of the column:
There have been false rumors circulated that if my good friend John Kerry is elected president, he will limit future space shuttle flights to 10 or less. Kerry has no such plans.
This appears to be references to rumors that NASA Watch alleged that Lori Garver had been circulating in recent days. Another interesting statement by Glenn is that Kerry “intends to be at the return-to-flight launch of shuttle Discovery next year.” Most of the rest of the commentary is largely a restatement of the Kerry space policy document.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 26 at 7:37 pm ET An Alamogordo (NM) Daily News article reports on a speech given Monday by former astronaut Rusty Schweickart in town (this appears to be a separate appearance from the New Mexico Tech talk he was also scheduled to give Monday.) It appears that Schweickart did not talk about space policy during his appearance (or else the reporter didn’t think it worthy of mention): the article focuses on what Schweickart thinks about Iraq, energy, and getting students to pursue careers in science and engineering.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 25 at 6:05 pm ET The Kerry/Edwards campaign has posted a space policy statement on its campaign website. The content of the policy should not come as much of a surprise for those who attended and/or read the press accounts of the Garver-Sietzen debate. The statement calls the Vision for Space Exploration “a purely political stunt, without being backed up by the necessary funding.” The alternative proposed by the Kerry campaign has five major points:
- Increasing NASA’s funding “above current levels adjusted for inflation”, paid for (along with other R&D initiatives) by accelerating the transition to digital TV broadcasting and auctioning the existing analog spectrum;
- Develop a “more balanced” program that “assigns appropriate priority to all NASA programs”. This would appear to place less of an emphasis on exploration in favor of space science, earth science, and aeronautics programs;
- Encourage international participation in NASA programs “in a meaningful way”;
- Increase the emphasis on aeronautics R&D (a partial restatement of point 2);
- Improving the current management of NASA; which the campaign alleges has failed in its bid to reform the agency’s financial and management problems.
Again, not too much of a surprise, although it is the most detailed official campaign statement on space policy to date.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 25 at 7:52 am ET On Saturday Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin appeared at a Bush campaign rally at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida, just south of Cape Canaveral. The Florida Today article about the event includes one quote from Aldrin’s speech: “There is so much more to explore. We need a vision for the future.” According to an official campaign transcript, Bush did not mention space during his address other than recognizing Aldrin’s presence:
I’m honored to call Buzz Aldrin friend. I appreciate him being here today. He’s one of the great pioneers of America. I appreciate you, Buzz, coming. I want to thank you for the example you have set for future pioneers.
Meanwhile, a participant on the Kerryspace email list notes that Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart is scheduled to speak at New Mexico Tech Monday afternoon on behalf of the Kerry campaign, in a speech sponsored by the campus Young Democrats chapter. However, Schweickart is scheduled to speak about renewable energy and “the importance of energy independence in the global context”, not space policy.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 24 at 12:36 pm ET In a New York Times article a few days ago about Congressman Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) reelection campaign—which is designed as much to position Weiner to run for mayor of New York next year as to return to Congress—aides to current mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to Weiner’s past interest in funding asteroid research when criticizing ads run by Weiner:
Mayoral aides also poked at the congressman’s own soft spot – a plan he once promoted called the Studying and Prevention of Asteroid Collisions with Earth Act, or Space Act, which sought to allocate $4 million to NASA to track “near-Earth objects.”
“In his self-aggrandizing pursuit of publicity and his naked ambition to be mayor, this ridiculous ad may very well violate the rules of both the Federal Election Commission and the New York City Campaign Finance Board,” said the mayor’s spokesman, Edward Skyler. “Two-Strike Tony should stick to press releases lauding his funding of intergalactic asteroid research.”
It’s worth noting that while Weiner promoted—and earned ridicule from—such legislation, I have never found any evidence that Weiner actually introduced the SPACE Act in the House this session; it does not show up in the list of legislation he sponsored.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 24 at 12:19 pm ET When I first started this weblog, I had the naive belief that allowing comments to posts would engender discussion about space policy topics and events. In many instances it has, but, unfortunately, the comments in a couple of recent posts have spiraled out of control, featuring some rather unprofessional remarks. This includes allegations of libel, some of which have been directed towards me simply for hosting the discussion. In both cases I’ve closed those posts to further comments, but perhaps later than I should have; for that, I apologize to any offended parties.
I have, in general, kept the discussions in the comments unmoderated, restricting my role to either closing the discussions that have gotten out of hand or deleting spam posts. This no longer seems like a tenable policy, primarily because of the actions of a handful of people. For the time being, I’m taking one step by eliminating the ability to post purely anonymous (without name and email) comments, since these comments have fueled much of the hostile debate. (I do recognize that it’s easy to circumvent this by posting with a fake name and email; I’d hope people here would not be juvenile enough not to do that, but I’ve overestimated people before…)
I’m also considering other changes, up to and including banning all comments and even closing down this blog. Those are undesirable alternatives, but they may turn out to be the only alternatives. I welcome any suggestions you’d like to make, either as a comment to this post or in an email. (All emails will be treated in confidence.) Keep in mind that some alternatives, like a Slashdot-style moderation system, are beyond the capabilities of the Movable Type software that runs this weblog, and switching to another system might be too much of an expense (in time and money) to be worthwhile.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 22 at 12:51 pm ET While Leroy Chiao will be on the ISS for the next six months, he won’t miss out on next month’s election. NASA announced Thursday that Chiao will vote electronically from the station, thanks to a provision passed by the Texas Legislature several years ago. He has even taped a public service announcement encouraging people back on Earth to vote on November 2.
This naturally raises a question: who will Chiao vote for? The Houston Chronicle reports that earlier this week he said he had not yet made a choice for President.
By Jeff Foust on 2004 October 20 at 8:35 pm ET In a Huntsville Times article Wednesday, Congressman Bud Cramer (D-AL) said opposition to funding the Vision for Space Exploration comes from both sides of the aisle:
Cramer said he and other NASA supporters in Congress are pushing to approve the money, but are fighting liberal Democrats who want more money for social programs and conservative Republicans who see space exploration as an unneeded cost, he said.
Not terribly surprising, although it’s too bad he didn’t name names. He added that Congress “probably” won’t get back to work on NASA’s FY05 budget before November 15; in fact, the House and Senate are not scheduled to reconvene until the afternoon of November 16.
|
|
