U.S. Congress
Air Force reorg too timid for House milspace leaders
Following the U.S. Air Force announcement that the service will be creating a new three-star staff position focused on space, two key lawmakers said it doesn’t address the core problems.
For Rep. Rogers, fighting through a war in space starts with fixing acquisition
The Alabama Republican has vowed to make “major reform” of the national security space sector a centerpiece of this year’s defense authorization bill.
McCain’s committee halves HASC’s RD-180 allowance
The Senate Armed Services Committee marked up its version of a defense authorization bill with language that lowers the limit on RD-180 engines to 9, instead of the 18 in the House bill.
Competing amendments relax restrictions on Air Force rocket funding
Key members of the House Armed Services Committee are pushing competing amendments that would do the same thing: let the Air Force spend a bit more on projects not directly related to building a replacement for the Russian RD-180 engine.
Op-ed | National Security in Space: Cleaning up a Mess
Is there no other way to make our point, while preserving access to Russian RD-180 engines?
Full Text | McCain Blasts Appropriators for Lifting RD-180 Ban
U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took to the Senate floor Dec. 16 to blast the Senate Appropriations Committee for eliminating restrictions Congress imposed last year on the Pentagon's use of Russian-built RD-180 rocket engines.
Congress Defends Commercial Space Bill’s Resource Rights Provisions
With the biggest commercial space bill in more than a decade now signed into law, members of Congress and their staffs are now turning their attention to reports required by the new law as well as other legislation.
GOES-13 Instrument Failure Punctuates Lawmakers’ Concerns About NOAA Transparency
House lawmakers scolded NOAA’s top satellite official here during a Dec. 10 hearing about a lack of transparency in the civilian agency’s major geostationary weather satellite program, which recently fell six months behind schedule on launching its next spacecraft.
Commercial Launch Sector Gets What It Needs
The U.S. Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which was signed into law by President Obama Nov. 25, is a victory for one industry sector that only recently returned to U.S. territory and another, fledgling sector that finally appears on the verge of becoming a reality.
New Law Unlikely To Settle Debate on Space Resource Rights
Language in a new commercial space law that grants companies rights to resources they extract from asteroids and other solar system bodies provides them with some certainty, but they acknowledge that the law is likely not the last word on the issue.
McCain Urges Appropriators To Uphold RD-180 Ban
U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has asked the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), to reject the idea of inserting a provision into a must-pass federal spending bill that would give the U.S. military access to a controversial Russian rocket engine until an alternative becomes available.
House Schedules Vote To Override Defense Bill Veto
As expected, President Obama vetoed the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, putting several national security space-related measures in limbo.
Editorial | New Hope for Ex-Im Bank
With an already dysfunctional U.S. House of Representatives sinking deeper into chaos, a small but gutsy group of Republicans pulled an arcane procedural maneuver to force a vote as soon as Oct. 26 on reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
Commercial Space Supporter McCarthy Drops House Speaker Bid
House Majority Leader and commercial space supporter Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has taken himself out of the running to become the next House speaker.
NASA Updates Government Shutdown Plans
More than 95 percent of NASA’s workforce would be furloughed should the government shut down on Oct. 1, according to an updated agency plan, even as the chance of such a scenario decreases.
