April of 2008 has been an exciting and interesting month for the Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration. After months of laying the administrative groundwork, the Committee "went public" earlier this month and we have now started our work in earnest.
Public Debut and Coming Website Enhancements
On April 14, the Committee made its public debut, with Director Jeff Brooks publishing a notice in the popular on-line space newsletter The Space Review, which is edited by Jeff Foust. By the end of the day, more than 500 hits were registered on the Committee website and online contributions had started coming in. Large numbers of people signed up to receive Committee notices and many interested activists emailed Mr. Brooks to ask how they might be of assistance to the Committee in its mission to promote a robust and comprehensive American space program.
The large numbers of visitors to the website was a welcome surprise. The Committee website will be expanding considerably in the coming months, with many new features being added. Of particular interest to many will be the online postings of Committee endorsements for the 2008 election cycle. Our goal is to make the Committee website the "one stop shop" on the Internet for people who wish to know which candidates for Congress and the Presidency are the most pro-space.
Coming Endorsements
The main purpose of the Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration is to assist the campaigns of pro-space candidates for federal office. To begin this process, we are busy communicating with congressional campaigns in order to determine which candidates are the most deserving of our support.
We have been mailing out questionnaires to the campaign offices of every contested Senate race and in selected competitive House races. We are following this up with direct contact with the campaigns. Because space exploration has been an almost invisible issue on the campaign trail, we feel that it is critically important for the campaigns to know that there is a dedicated constituency who believes the issue to be important.
The feedback we have received thus far has been quite positive, including statements that it was "about time" the space advocacy community had a political action committee. We expect to announce our first endorsements in June. Critical races will also be given financial support from the Committee's campaign fund. The larger the campaign fund, the more campaigns we can support- more on that later.
Message to the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
In addition to supporting candidates for office, the Committee does its work by lobbying Congress on matters of space policy. Recently, the Committee sent letters to each member of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics to express its concern over the dependence of NASA on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
While it is inevitable that NASA will lack its own human spaceflight capability between the last flight of the Space Shuttle and the first flight of the Orion spacecraft, the Committee hopes that Congress will make the necessary policy decisions now to ensure that this time period will be kept to an absolute minimum.
In its letter, the Committee called for two specific policies to be enacted. First, the Subcommittee members should follow the lead of Senator Barbara Milkulski (D-MD) and push for an addition of $1 billion to the NASA budget in order to accelerate the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Ares rockets. Second, the Subcommittee members should push for increased support for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, helping to create a commercial alternative to government launches for the provision of supplies to the International Space Station.
These two measures will not only reduce America's dependence upon Russia for access to Earth orbit, but will greatly advance the goals of returning astronauts to the Moon and sending an expedition to Mars.
Building a Campaign Fund
A main task ahead of the Committee is raising funds to provide support for pro-space candidates over the course of the 2008 election. The more money we raise, the more support we can give to pro-space candidates and the more attention will be given to space policy as an election issue.
Any help you can provide will be of great value. Even contributions as small as $10, $25 or $50 can make a considerable difference. Basic membership in the Committee is $30.
Contributions can be made online through our website or can be mailed to:
Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration
P.O. Box 200243
Austin, TX 78720-0243
As always, please feel free to contact the Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration with any questions or comments you might have. General inquiries can be sent to info@committee4spaceadvocacy.org, while questions specifically addressed to Director Jeff Brooks can be sent to director@committee4spaceadvocacy.org. Our phone number is: (904) 382-8348.
