Washington Updates

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 hearing…

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…

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…

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…

The update from Washington, D.C., is by Space Foundation Government Affairs Associate Tommy Sanford Dec. 2 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Space Launch Liability Indemnification Extension Act, H.R 3547. The bill would extend the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commercial launch indemnification authority for another year. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) introduced a similar…