Rep. Wolf: "We cannot cede the space frontier to China"

In an opening statement today for the mark up of the appropriations bill that funds NASA, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) exclaimed that “We cannot cede the space frontier to China.”

Rep. Wolf chairs the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee, which funds NASA, NOAA and other agencies. Despite his insistence that the United States not lose its leadership in space, his subcommittee is recommending deep cuts to NASA for FY2012. However, as he points out, the subcommittee does recommend more money than requested for NASA to build a new crew space transportation system — the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and the Space Launch System.. That suggests that he defines leadership in space as leadership in human spaceflight rather than the space program overall.

His strong negative views about China are well known. He included language in the bill that currently funds NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) prohibiting them from spending any of those funds to engage in cooperative activities with China or even discuss them. In his statement today, he also said that the United States needs a “reality check” on China and that a “sense of mission” is need to guide NASA forward to assure U.S. leadership. He set aside $1 million for the NASA Inspector General’s office to do a “comprehensive independent assessment of NASA’s strategic direction and agency management to help chart a future course for the agency that is bold and achievable.”