NASA appropriations hearing scheduled; calls for action

The Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing on the NASA budget proposal for 2013 for this coming Wednesday, March 21, at 9 am Eastern time. The hearing will be webcast for those not able to attend in person. It’s like the proposed cuts in NASA’s planetary science programs, including termination of NASA’s participation in ExoMars, will come us, as well as the agency’s proposed $830 million for commercial crew development, based on the NASA-related topics that came up in a hearing with presidential science advisor John Holdren two weeks ago.

At the same time, space activists are rallying to support commercial crew as well as space technology, two parts of the NASA budget proposal perceived to be particularly vulnerable to cuts. The Space Frontier Foundation issued a legislative alert Thursday, asking people to contact their members of Congress to support a request for “full funding” for those two programs. (The Space Access Society issued a similar call for legislative action on Wednesday.) Because the deadline for members to submit specific funding requests is Tuesday the 20th, the organizations are asking people to contact their members by Monday.