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May 21, 2005
Chapter Awards
Last night at ISDC we recognized a few of the chapters who have done great work in the past year. Congratulations to the following!
* National Space Society France: Special Merit Award for Education
* Huntsville Alabama L5 Society: Special Merit Award for Community Service
* National Space Society of Brasilia, Brazil: Special Merit award for
Publicity and Media
* Orange County Space Society: Chapter Excellence Award for Public Outreach
* Sacramento L-5 Society: Chapter Excellence - Explorer Award
and the Chapter of the Year Award goes to Oklahoma Space Alliance, for their really wide breadth of activity, not least for their great example to other chapters in perhaps the most challenging project a relatively small chapter can take on - they hosted last
year's International Space Development Conference!
Thanks to all our chapters for all their great work!
Posted by apsmith at 03:19 PM
Legislative Conference Report
Tuesday and Wednesday this week, before the ISDC meeting, I helped participate in this year's NSS Legislative Conference - Space Blitz '05. Smaller than last year's Moon Mars Blitz we had about 2 dozen participants this time. With 7 teams we were able to visit something like 70-80 congressional offices in the day and a half we had available; the reception from the congressional staffs was generally very positive!
Our agenda covered three main issues: supporting current NASA plans, particularly the new NASA administrator, and pushing for acceleration of the Vision for Space Exploration (including closing the 2010-2014 CEV gap). Second, support for the Hubble telescope - if the space shuttle does return to flight without trouble, we asked for congressional support for a human repair mission (very well received by the Maryland members!) Finally, support for private space flight including expanding the centennial prizes, fixing the ITAR rules, allowing commercial cargo supply to the space station, and more along those lines.
Some of the aides we met with didn't know much about space at all; some were very supportive. There were a few concerns about budget - they were very receptive to some items we raised (NASA Authorization bill, ITAR fixing) that wouldn't cost anything at all - and in fact the NASA budget request for 2006 is only 2.4% more than 2005, so not a huge increase at all. There was also some concern about the exploration program damaging the science program - our support for both (Hubble as part fo the science piece) seemed to gain friends there.
All in all, a good set of visits. Weather was nice, though congress didn't seem to have turned on their air conditioners yet.
Posted by apsmith at 09:52 AM
May 14, 2005
Ken Murphy (NSS-North Texas) on the Space Show
This happened last weekend - we missed announcing it beforehand, but you can hear the interview over the internet:
http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q=334
Ken Murphy is president of the NSS North Texas Chapter, a great advocate for lunar exploration, and has done some excellent outreach activities. He's a strong advocate for NSS. Congratulations to Ken on the interview!
Posted by apsmith at 04:24 PM
May 11, 2005
ISDC next week!
The NSS's annual conference, the 24th International Space Development Conference, starts next week. Friday is the day for chapters - chapters committee in the afternoon, chapter awards at the Friday dinner, and the chapters assembly that night.
Dale Amon, conference committee chair, posts his thoughts on the upcoming meeting; it should be a good one!
Posted by apsmith at 04:22 PM