No panic but not too soon to react

Gee, after a relaxing evening at home with dinner and a couple of NBA games on TV, I come back to the PC to be told to stop panicking: Hand off the panic button, please - Space Politics. OK, I promise.

I don't think that expressing concern over a candidate for leadership of a department that can have a big influence over the industry of greatest interest to me is a case of over-reacting. If there are several people in a list of candidates and one of them is particularly egregious with respect to the health of that industry, then it seems like a reasonable rather than a panicky strategy to try to get him or her struck off the list as early as possible when it is easiest to do so.

Oberstar stands out to me because I was struck during the CSLAA hearings over how aggressive he was in pushing for harsher regulations. I was surprised that any non-space enthusiast Congressperson would even pay attention to legislation for such a minor nascent industry, much less go out of his way to force particular constraints on it. As Jeff points out, even several months after the CSLAA had passed, he tried to modify it. Though commercial spaceflight is certainly a tiny part of a Transportation Dept. Secretary's purview, I don't think it follows that a Secretary Oberstar would necessarily have forgotten about the loose ends he left there.

I'm sure that throughout the country, those who are affected most by a particular department or agency are watching closely to the floating of names of candidates for the leadership post of that organization. NewSpace enthusiasts will certainly have a tough time trying to influence the choice for a major department like Transportation, which impacts several gigantic industries.

Furthermore, it appears that the Obama transition team is going to act much faster than previous ones due to the situation with two wars and a financial crisis. I wouldn't be surprised if most major jobs are assigned before Christmas. If decisions on nominations are going to be made quickly, then efforts to influence those decisions are going to have to be made quickly as well.

Posted 11/07/08 | 01:42:18 by TopSpacer | Filed under: Space Law and Regs

Comments

Agreed. This is not an overreaction. I see some are calling on us to "engage" with the new administration instead of "fighting" it, but letting the new administration know that some of its choices are acceptable while some aren't is precisely what engagement is all about.

Posted by Adam Greenwood at 11/07/08 08:28:39

You can express your sentiments about Newspace and related appointments directly to the Obama transition team through the President-elect's website, which has a page asking Americans to discuss their vision for America:

http://change.gov/page/s/yo...

I have already used this form to express my hopes for, among other issues, the continuation and expansion of fixed-price contracting at NASA, COTS, space prizes, and support for the emerging entrepreneurial sector.

Obviously space is an umpteenth priority at this time, but I also emphasized the role science and technology must play in creating jobs, and the promise of Spaceport America in New Mexico - stomping grounds of Bill Richardson, who is quite likely to play a role in the Obama administration.

I wouldn't waste any time worrying about Oberstar. First, we don't actually know who Obama's appointing to any space-relevant position.

Secondly, Richardson and the pro-space Netroots will undoubtedly be far more determined to influence the administration in a positive direction than Oberstar would even have time to sabotage.

Thirdly, Obama personally responds to our type of vision a lot more than to dogmatic motivations like Oberstar's. His agnosticism toward space matters is thus our greatest opportunity - we can make him a believer in our energy, whether or not he finds our specific dreams particularly salient under the circumstances.

Thus we may, as a mere afterthought to a tsunami of change, achieve the greatest of possible launches.

Posted by Brian Swiderski at 11/07/08 09:06:57

Add Comment

Note: HTML code will not work except for bare URLs (i.e. http://www...). Also, for postings older than 1 week, comments are filtered manually to prevent spam and so may not appear for a few days.
Note: Trash talking and name calling, especially in anonymous comments, won't be tolerated.