Posts tagged with ‘NASA’
A lot has changed in five decades for the venerable committee. (UFOs are no longer on the agenda.) But our 21st-century Representatives still have some Cold War priorities.
The National Academies’ highest award, the Public Welfare Medal, will go this year to Neal Lane. The medal honors the “extraordinary use of science for public good.” Lane is the Malcolm Gillis University Professor and Senior Fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, and a member of the [...]
The proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act recognizes that science, technology and innovation have long provided the foundation for America’s prosperity, and are crucial to boosting an economy in crisis.
The future of the U.S. space program is very much in doubt. In spite of continued great accomplishments, a number of setbacks, combined with a series of bold pronouncements by the Bush administration followed by inadequate funding, have led to serious questions of the nation’s commitment to space and, consequently, to a steady erosion of NASA and the aerospace industry that supports its missions.
The Washington rumor mill is buzzing with names of possible science appointees—and there are dozens of major science-related positions to fill. The questions appointees will face are an opportunity for a clear break with past approaches.
On Monday President Bush signed a supplemental appropriations bill granting $337.5 million in additional funding to various federal scientific agencies. The support is good news, but the administration should not have neglected the financial health of these vital groups in the first place.
Now even the Bush administration basically admits that it misused and suppressed global warming information and the scientists who purvey it. Is the battle finally over?
When the Shuttle program closes down in 2010, manned space flight from the United States will end for at least five years, leaving thousands of highly skilled aerospace industry workers without a mission to serve. That shouldn’t be allowed to happen.
Sending humans to the Moon and Mars won’t answer any pressing scientific questions. That’s why NASA should focus its resources on Earth and space science that will teach us more about the home planet and the mysterious “dark energy” driving galaxies apart.
This week boasts a slew of congressional hearings on science and technology policy issues including: renewable energy, gene patenting, aviation safety, nanotechnology safety, and drug-resistant TB.
MSNBC’s Cosmic Log reports that NASA has disowned Rocketplane Kistler, the private company that, along with SpaceX, was the co-winner of NASA’s rocket competition in August of 2006. The effort was part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation System program. COTS was designed to encourage private companies to devise low-cost ways of resupplying the international space station.
The University of Michigan is hosting a conference on developing technology corridors this week as the Senate considers two major appropriations bills that fund science agencies.
