Category Archives: Space Policy

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Dec.10.13 [Update]

Here is a post I wrote on NewSpace Watch that was prompted by Rand Simberg’s recent commentary about the impact on the aerospace primes by SpaceX‘s launch of the SES-8 satellite to GEO: A meteor impact on the launch industry + Inmarsat and reliability at any cost (to the taxpayer) – available to non-subscribers.

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John Strickland was interviewed recently on two episodes of the Doug Turnbull podcast show about various space development topics, particularly the problems with the SLS/Orion program (see John’s article Revisiting SLS/Orion launch costs – The Space Review):

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Rick Boozer, who has also been on the Turnbull show (here and here), has a new op-ed at Space.com: Allow NASA to Do Great Things Again – Space Policy/Space.com.

Check out Rick’s book The Plundering of NASA: an Exposé.

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More space policy/politics related links:

Update:

Events, Space Policy

“America’s Space Futures” – New space policy book to be discussed at Capitol Hill event, Dec.13th

This Friday the George C. Marshall Institute will hold an event on Capitol Hill titled:

America’s Space Futures: Defining Goals for Space Exploration

Date/Time
Date(s) – 12/13/20132:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Location
2325 Rayburn House Office Building

Despite broad popular support for NASA and the importance of America’s efforts in space, the American space program is adrift, uncertain about the future and unclear about the purposes it serves.  Policymakers in the White House and Congress have papered over the uncertainty with compromises that sometimes leave NASA working against itself and no one satisfied.

On December 13, 2013 the George C. Marshall Institute will release a new book, America’s Space Futures: Defining Goals for Space Exploration, which responds to this challenge by considering the costs, benefits and risks of different visions for the American space program. In a series of essays, the authors offer out-of-the-box thinking and analyses that lay out a space future that sets priorities to achieve a specific national goal.

The event will include discussion by the book’s authors:

  • James Vedda, Senior Policy Analyst at the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy & Strategy
  • Scott Pace, Director of the Space Policy Institute and Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.
  • William Adkins, President of Adkins Strategies LLC and former Staff Director of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee.
  • Charles Miller, President of NexGen Space LLC and former NASA Senior Advisor for Commercial Space
  • Eric Sterner, Fellow at the George C. Marshall Institute and faculty member at Missouri State University Graduate Department of Defense and Strategic Studies.

 For reservations, call 571-970-3180 or email info@marshall.org

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Charles Miller tells me that his chapter in the book deals with

why Cheap Access to Space (CATS) should be our nation’s top strategic priority.  I also focus on how we can achieve CATS based on lessons learned from recent history and new insights from early aviation.

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Dec.9.13 [Update]

Rand Simberg writes about the impact on big aerospace and NASA by SpaceX‘s recent successful launch of the geostationary telecommunications satellite SES-8: The Dinosaurs Of The Launch Industry – Transterrestrial Musings.

BTW: Rand’s new book on spaceflight risk is now available at Amazon:  Safe Is Not an Option “Overcoming the futile obsession with getting everyone back alive that is now killing our expansion into space“.

More space policy links:

The forces that keep federal money flowing to the sugar industry are very similar to those that keep $3B per year going to the SLS/Orion boondoggle : Sugar protections prove easy to swallow for lawmakers on both sides of aisle – The Washington Post.

Update:

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Dec.6.13

Today’s selection of space policy/politics related links:

 

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Dec.5.13

Today’s selection of space policy/politics related links:

Here’s a video of yesterday’s House hearing on astrobiology:

Caption:

On December 4, 2013, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology held a hearing titled, “Astrobiology: Search for Biosignatures in our Solar System and Beyond.”

Invited witnesses were:

Dr. Mary Voytek
Senior Scientist for Astrobiology, Planetary Science Division
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dr. Sara Seager
Class of 1941 Professor of Physics and Planetary Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Steven Dick
Baruch S. Blumberg Chair of Astrobiology, John W. Kluge Center
Library of Congress

The event was webcast live and is in the public domain.

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