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December 09, 2004
HR 5382 passes!
Thanks to all who called their senators the last few days!!! More details on the bill are available here - it passed without any amendment in the final hours of the 108th congress yesterday, by unanimous consent of the senate. The title of the bill, "Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004" and justification: "To promote the development of the emerging commercial human space flight industry, and for other purposes." indicate the importance to space tourism and our future in space. Well done everybody!
Posted by apsmith at 09:22 AM
December 06, 2004
Space Meetup is growing!
Meetup day is tomorrow (Tuesday) - check out your local organization at space.meetup.com!
The biggest groups right now are:
Omaha, NE - 18 members
New York, NY - 17 members
Washington, DC - 9 members
San Jose, CA - 9 members
San Francisco, CA - 8 members
Irving, TX - 8 members
Some of these are working with existing NSS chapters, some are new - join one and help expand interest in space exploration in your area!
Posted by apsmith at 11:43 AM
Alert - HR5382
From Don Doughty through the NSS Political Action Network:
Please call or Fax both Senators from your state and ask them to support HR5382, The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act. HR5382 is the latest hard-fought compromise version of HR 3752, which in turn started as HR3245 (text and other info for all these bills can be found using their numbers at http://thomas.loc.gov/). Your Senators can be reached though the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
The new commercial space passenger industry shows great promise if allow to take prudent risks and develop low cost technology as happened during the early days of aviation. The FAA currently regulates the risk of uninvolved bystanders and this bill will not change these regulations.
More details at: Space Access Society_ (SAS) Update #107, on what's
needed to get HR5382 through the Senate. The SAS has been following space transportation budget & legislative for issues well over a decade.
Hints for working "The Hill": one page Faxes have the most impact,
followed by phone calls. Letters and e-mail have the least effect.
Letters & packages take several weeks to be delivered because of security procedures, and e-mail carries little weight because of the large volume.
Posted by apsmith at 11:36 AM