Commercial Space in Jeopardy -- Call Your Senator Today

[Rick Hanton]

To those students supportive of commercial spaceflight companies like SpaceX, please read:

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URGENT: Commercial Space in Jeopardy -- Call Your Senator TODAY

A new authorization bill for NASA includes major cuts to commercial spaceflight, but Senator Warner has offered an amendment to restore those cuts and move commercial space forward.

The NASA Authorization Bill being proposed cuts the proposed Commercial Crew Program by $2.1 billion (up to 66%), seriously affecting commercial space efforts by such companies as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, and Orbital Sciences.  Senator Warner's amendment will restore full funding to the program, but he needs YOUR help to get support from other Senators!

The Warner Amendment will be voted on Thursday morning.  Now is the time to call your Senator to say, "Please support the Warner Amendment for commercial spaceflight that will create over 10,000 jobs, and reduce our dependence on Russia!"   This is your chance to make a difference in the course of space history!  (The phone numbers for each Senator on the committee are below, so please check to see if you or your parents are a residents of one of those states!)

Majority
Rockefeller (D-West Virginia)-Chair - 202-224-6472
Inouye (D-Hawaii) - 202-224-3934
Kerry (D-Massachusetts) - 202-224-2742
Dorgan (D-North Dakota) - 202-224-2551
Boxer (D-California) - 202-224-3553
Nelson (D-Florida) - 202-224-5274
Cantwell (D-Washington State) - 202-224-3441
Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) - 202-224-3224
Pryor (D-Arkansas) - 202-224-2353
McCaskill (D-Missouri) - 202-224-6154
Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) - 202-224-3244
Udall (D-New Mexico) - 202-224-6621
Warner (D-Virginia) - 202-224-2023
Begich (D-Alaska) - 202-224-3004

Minority
Hutchison (R-Texas)-Ranking Member - 202-224-5922
Snowe (R-Maine) - 202-224-5344
Ensign (R-Nevada) - 202-224-6244
DeMint (R-South Carolina) - 202-224-6121
Thune (R-South Dakota) - 202-224-2321
Wicker (R-Mississippi) - 202-224-6253
LeMieux (R-Florida) - 202-224-3041
Isakson (R-Georgia) - 202-224-3643
Vitter (R-Louisiana) - 202-224-4623
Brownback (R-Kansas) - 202-224-6521
Johanns (R-Nebraska) - 202-224-4224=

- SEDS-USA Board of Directors

--
Rick Hanton
SEDS-USA Expansion Director
Senior in Computer Engineering

[Rick Hanton]

SEDS students, take note that while this amendment mentioned a few days ago for commercial space may not have passed, the main NASA compromise bill was approved by the commerce, science, and transportation committee this morning.  I also wanted to point out that it may have been my mistake to delete the forwarding data from the earlier message.  That message was passed to us by the Space Frontier Foundation for us to notify SEDS members and I felt it was a valid call to students to investigate the legislation going through committee, though others would have prefered a write-up about the cons of that amendment as well (sorry!).

 

If you find this legislative side of space a little bit interesting or were a person who actually called/e-mailed your senator to express your opinion, we want YOU on our council of chapters committee discussing how SEDS should approach political involvement or sending of political information to members (though the organization itself will continue to have a neutral position as written in section 7 of our bylaws).  If you're interested in helping out over the next few weeks, contact me (Rick Hanton) at expa...@seds.org to let me know.

 

For all the details of what is and isn't funded in this approved bill (which still must be voted upon), see these links:

http://tinyurl.com/2fmn5vw
http://tinyurl.com/25jy27u
And from the skeptics: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2010/07/space-coast-leaders-attack-nelson-nasa-bill.html

Enjoy!

 

Sincerely,

Rick Hanton on behalf of SEDS-USA