The current issue (#15) of Online Journal of Space Communications profiles more than 50 women in the aerospace field, both government and private sector, including Yvonne Brill (consultant), Ellen Hoff (President, W.L. Pritchard & Co.), Wanda Austin (Aerospace Corp.), the late Eilene Galloway, Joanne Maguire (Lockheed Martin), Kay Sears (Intelsat General), Gwynne Shotwell (SpaceX), Nicole …
The Associated Press is reporting that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano has decided to kill the National Applications Office (NAO) program. The program has been at the center of controversy as to whether DHS has appropriate privacy safeguards in place for domestic use of Intelligence Community assets such as classified satellite imagery. …
Decadal Surveys are signature products of the National Research Council because they set consensus-based priorities in various fields of research. Our “National Research Council” section (on our left menu) has been updated to explain what Decadal Surveys are and to provide links to the four existing Decadal Surveys that guide space and earth science research …
Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, will hold a hearing on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Office of Intelligence and Analysis on June 24 at 10:00 am in 311 Cannon House Office Building. The witness will be Bart Johnson, Acting …
According to Congress Daily (subscription required), the House is expected to take up the FY2010 Department of Defense authorization bill (H.R. 2647) this week. The bill was reported from the House Armed Services Committee last week (H. Rept. 111-166). It is available on the committee’s website or through Thomas. The House Rules Committee is scheduled …
Patti Grace Smith issued a rallying cry for commercial space transportation on Thursday at an AIAA symposium on Innovation in Orbit: An Exploration of Commercial Crew and Cargo Transportation. The former Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the FAA, who is now a consultant, said that “America is losing the space race.” To be …
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) were successfully launched by an Atlas 5 on June 18. This is the first launch of the Vision for Space Exploration announced by President George W. Bush in January 2004. The launch originally was scheduled to take place during the Bush …
The following events next week may be of interest. In addition to the events listed below, the DOD authorization bill may go to the floor in the House. Check the House calendar at http://www.house.gov for up to the minute information. The Senate Armed Services Committee and its subcommittees are scheduled to markup their versions of …
According to Congress Daily (subscription required), the House debate on the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill yesterday set a new record for votes in a single day. “The House Thursday conducted a raucous, marathon series of 53 roll-call votes” in an “eight-hour vote-a-rama.” The earlier record was 40 votes in a single day on Oct. …
The Augustine panel held a public meeting today in Washington, D.C. The day-long meeting was jam-packed with briefings from NASA, the Aerospace Corp., the COTS companies (SpaceX and Orbital), and representatives of companies and groups promoting alternatives to the Ares launch vehicles. A teleconference was held with the heads of the European Space Agency (Jean-Jacques …