ARCHIVED WEBCAST [starts at 34 min.]--- 
The United States Senate Commerce Science and Space Subcommittee hearing on Assessing Commercial Space Capabilities on Thursday, March 18, 2010 beginning at 2:30PM in the Russell Senate Office Building - 253 on Capitol Hill in which commercial space launch firm executives will be appearing just as space policy observers look to Virginia Senator Mark R. Warner to engage the NewSpace policy debate with 'the right stuff.'
The subcommittee is chaired by Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla) with Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) the ranking minority member. Both Senators recently participated vigorously in the subcommittee's hearing of February 24, 2010 on the future of the space agency and the Obama submitted NASA FY 2011 budget.
Senator Mark R. Warner, who played a very significant role in the establishment of the FAA licensed commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport while Virginia's governor, serves as a majority junior member of the Senate Commerce Science and Space Subcommittee. Nonetheless, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation will be launching the commercial space launch booster Taurus-2 from the Wallops Island, Va. spaceport early next spring with several orbital missions planned to provide re-supply and cargo to the International Space Station through 2015 and perhaps beyond. The result is a growing job spurt in Virginia.
Virginia's junior Senator may become a key legislator in the debate between commercial and civil space in the days ahead as a result of Virginia's fledgling role as a space state contender in the evolving commercial space launch business especially if he forges a pro-space relationship with Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md), a key member on NASA budget matters. However, the House delegation will apparently not be united as Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va) recently expressed concern with the Chinese in space reasoning that NASA's under-funded and over-budget Constellation program is the strategic answer.
The United States Senate Commerce Science and Space Subcommittee hearing on Assessing Commercial Space Capabilities on Thursday, March 18, 2010 beginning at 2:30PM in the Russell Senate Office Building - 253 on Capitol Hill in which commercial space launch firm executives will be appearing just as space policy observers look to Virginia Senator Mark R. Warner to engage the NewSpace policy debate with 'the right stuff.'The subcommittee is chaired by Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla) with Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) the ranking minority member. Both Senators recently participated vigorously in the subcommittee's hearing of February 24, 2010 on the future of the space agency and the Obama submitted NASA FY 2011 budget.
Senator Mark R. Warner, who played a very significant role in the establishment of the FAA licensed commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport while Virginia's governor, serves as a majority junior member of the Senate Commerce Science and Space Subcommittee. Nonetheless, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation will be launching the commercial space launch booster Taurus-2 from the Wallops Island, Va. spaceport early next spring with several orbital missions planned to provide re-supply and cargo to the International Space Station through 2015 and perhaps beyond. The result is a growing job spurt in Virginia.
Virginia's junior Senator may become a key legislator in the debate between commercial and civil space in the days ahead as a result of Virginia's fledgling role as a space state contender in the evolving commercial space launch business especially if he forges a pro-space relationship with Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md), a key member on NASA budget matters. However, the House delegation will apparently not be united as Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va) recently expressed concern with the Chinese in space reasoning that NASA's under-funded and over-budget Constellation program is the strategic answer.
Warner's home state legislature has passed a Senate and House-backed resolution urging support for the Obama commercial space launch policies and the NASA FY 2011 budget. Both current Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell (R)and former Governor Tim Kaine (D) are supporters of the Virginia commercial spaceport. NASA recently announced an additional $43-million in spaceport infrastructure development to support upcoming commercial space launch missions.
Moreover, the Virginia legislature has been advancing pro-commercial space law in the past four years ranging from new spaceport operating funds from the cash-starved state budget to $26-million in state backed bonds to build spaceport infrastructure to the the Virginia Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act to ZeroGravity-ZeroTax laws that earned Virginia recognition from the FAA/AST --- and observational concern from aerospace interests in Florida.
Warner's seeding of the commercial space launch movement during his tenure as Virginia's governor now has legs. Northern Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation is morphing into one of the nation's leading commercial space launch providers employing hundreds. There are thousands of space workers at the Eastern Shore NASA Wallops Flight Facility and the Tidewater NASA Langley Research Center who stand to benefit from the Obama Administration NASA FY 2011 budget.
In far-flung southwestern Virginia's Appalachian coalfields, even the Powell Valley Middle School students are 'wondering' with their public school teachers about the NewSpaceAge opportunities ranging from becoming rocket propulsion scientists, asteroid or Moon miners, space fashion designers, or Bigelow Aerospace orbiting space hotel workers. Sen. Warner may open the door of job opportunity for the school kids to decide by the end of this decade.
No comments:
Post a Comment