Report from Washington, D.C.

The White House released its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request to Congress on March 4. The budget is normally issued in early February, but was delayed due to a delay in finalizing FY 2014 funding. The Space Foundation has produced two reports, providing overviews and comparisons of the Fiscal Year 2015 budgets. The reports include…

On March 26, the House Science, Space, & Technology Committee held a hearing entitled, “A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Request for Science Agencies.” Members of the Committee agreed that investing in science and innovation was important for the United States’ maintaining a competitive economy and inspiring young people to study science,…

On March 12, the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces held a hearing entitled, “Military Space Programs.” The hearing covered a broad spectrum of issues facing the space community including, concept studies for future military satellite architectures, updates on current satellites under production, the future of EELV competition and the space situational awareness architecture,…

In February, a team from the Space Foundation’s Washington, D.C., office visited Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va., and toured the mission control centers, as well as the spacecraft manufacturing facilities. It is at this location that the company’s spacecraft are designed, built and tested, including civilian, commercial and national security spacecraft. The tour included a…

In February, the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Space held a hearing on “Necessary Updates to the Commercial Space Launch Act.” The Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA), first passed in 1984, and amended several times since then, gives authority to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to license commercial launches and indemnify launch providers…

On Feb. 27, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing entitled, “U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Cyber Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2015.” While the hearing normally reviews President Obama’s budget request for these two Commands, due to the budget being released a month late (March 4) the…

On Feb. 27, the House Science, Space & Technology Committee held a hearing entitled, “Mars Flyby 2021: The First Deep Space Mission for the Orion and Space Launch System?” Members of Congress agreed that Mars was the ultimate destination for NASA’s human exploration program, but differed on whether NASA would be ready to support a…

On Jan. 17, President Obama signed the $1.012 trillion Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 omnibus spending bill into law. The omnibus funds the entire Federal government including NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). NASA was appropriated an overall budget of $17.646 billion for FY 2014. This is an increase…

In January, Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham issued a statement regarding the planned extension of the International Space Station mission by four years until 2024. “The Space Foundation strongly supports the decision to extend the ISS mission to 2024,” said Pulham, “and congratulates NASA and the White House for stepping out smartly to…

Since 2010, the Space Foundation has held an annual international space cooperation event in the nation’s capitol. On Jan. 22, the Space Foundation celebrated United States and Canadian space cooperation at a reception at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Space Foundation and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the event recognized the…