Washington Updates

On a beautiful fall weekend in October nearly 200,000 people crowded The National Mall in Washington, D.C. to learn more about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The USA Science & Engineering Festival, hosted by Lockheed Martin, was the country’s first national science festival. It opened Oct. 10 with a concert of science songs…

Brendan Curry, vice president – Washington Operations, represented the Space Foundation in October at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) in New Mexico. Curry was part of a panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities of implementing the new U.S. space policy. His comments covered:  Areas where there could be new commercial space…

G. Ryan Faith, who has joined the Space Foundation as a research analyst, wrote extensively about space policy, and human spaceflight in particular, during his years at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. As a program manager for space initiatives at CSIS, he worked with the Space Foundation on a…

President Barack Obama signed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 into law last month.  Now, Congressional appropriators must pass the NASA appropriations bill after they return from the 2010 mid-term elections in November. October Washington activity touched on disaster preparation, international outreach, commercial contracts and a critical confirmation : The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy…

The Space Foundation has expressed its approval of the Sept. 29 passage of FY2011 NASA Authorization, S. 3729, by the House of Representatives. The bill is a Senate-enacted roadmap that establishes a clear path forward for the nation’s space agency. “America’s civil space program has been in costly and divisive turmoil since Congress received the President’s…

The Space Foundation is participating in the USA Science & Engineering Festival’s Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Oct. 23-24. The two-day Expo, which is the culmination of 15-day event, will feature more than 500 science and engineering organizations from across the United States presenting hands-on, fun science activities to inspire the next generation of scientists…