January 13, 2015

Join the Space Exploration Alliance's Legislative Blitz


You are invited to join the Mars Society, the Planetary Society, the National Space Society, ExploreMars and other major space advocacy groups in participating in the 2015 Space Exploration Alliance Legislative (SEA) Blitz in Washington, D.C. from February 22-24.

Invite your friends and come join space advocates from around the country to let Congress know that there is strong constituent support for an ambitious space program. You will find this experience to be exciting and rewarding. There will be an information/training session on Sunday, February 22nd, and Congressional visits on Monday, February 23rd and Tuesday, February 24th.

Register Here:
http://www.spaceexplorationalliance.org/blitz/
More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/686839654763566/

If you cannot make it to the event please call your Congressman and Senators on February 23 or 24 and tell them you support space exploration and want space to be a national priority.

  • Commentary: The Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration endorses and participates in the SEA Blitz. We encourage every space advocate to take a couple days to go to DC and join the effort to educate Members and staff on the importance of having a bold and growing space program. Space has wide but very shallow support in Congress. Witness the declining (in real dollars) of the NASA budget at the time when China and other nations are dramatically increasing their investments.

    Neil deGrasse Tyson has popularized the call for at least 1% for space so we can actually establish bases on the moon and Mars. We should not be content to watch as our budget gets cut and the decisions are which program to cut to spare another, rather than how to best achieve the goals we want and how to accomplish them in years and not decades.

    During the SEA Legislative "Blitz," you will have the opportunity to talk to Members of Congress and their staff who are from "non-space" states and districts. They may not be aware of the tremendous benefits the space program has brought to their state or district. As examples; farmers' crop yields rely upon satellite mapping and modern weather forecasts regardless of whether there is space industry in their region, and senior citizens across the country live longer thanks to medical advances developed by the space program. Every state and district therefore really is a "space state and district!"

    Beyond the myriad economic, exploration and other direct benefits of the space program, or even our greater goals of colonizing space; there's an often overlooked strategic component: If the US does not continue our historic leadership in space (that means a US human presence on both the moon and Mars), we may well end up with the tyrannies on the world controlling space and denying us access in varying ways.

    Space so ruled would be highly unfriendly to commercial space ventures, and if we are to believe China would not exert such control, then they are setting a very poor example in trying to seize the international waters of the South and East China Seas and the islands and territorial waters which belong to other nations in that region.

    Space will not automatically remain open to everyone in today's increasingly dangerous world.

New NASA Congressional Committee Chairmen

Many of the 114th Congress Committee and Subcommittee Chairmen of interest for NASA and space have now been selected. 

Senate: Thad Cochran (R-MS) is the new Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) is the Ranking Member. 

John Thune (R-SD) is the new Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Bill Nelson (D-FL) is the Ranking Member. Ted Cruz (R-TX) chairs the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness.

On the House side, the Appropriations Committee chairman remains Hal Rogers (R-KY) and the Ranking Member is Nita Lowey (D-NY). John Culberson (R-TX) replaces great space advocate Frank Wolf.

Lamar Smith (R-TX) remains the Chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee.