HASC Hearing on Assuring Assured Access to Space, March 2015
ON March 17, 2015, the Strategic Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) held a hearing on “Assuring Assured Access to Space” that debates issues about how to end U.S. reliance on Russia’s RD-180 engines, used for the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) Atlas V rocket and how to create competition in the marketplace for launches of U.S. national security satellites. SpacePolicyOnline.com published a summary of the hearing on March 18, 2015. Witnesses were:
- SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell
- ULA President Tory Bruno
- DOD assistant secretary for acquisition Katharina McFarland
- Air Force assistant secretary for acquisition William LaPlante
- Commander of Air Force Space Command Gen. John Hyten
- Maj. Gen. Howard “Mitch” Mitchell (Ret.), Aerospace Corporation