A4H Bruce Davis Speaks with Elected Members of Congress

Bruce discusses space policy with Senator Mark Udall of Colorado
Last week, A4H’s very own Bruce Davis traveled to Washington DC to educate congressional staffers and elected officials on the state of the space industry, and the importance of space exploration to the United States. Bruce was traveling with the Citizen’s for Space Exploration, a grassroots organization which annually travels to Capitol Hill to talk about space. This year, over 120 people (including 20 students) walked the halls of the legislative branch and visited over 350 congressional offices. For each visit, the volunteers engage the staffers by asking for their perspectives on the current NASA issues and in a bi-partisan manner fill in the gaps / misunderstandings that sometimes occur.

Outside the Senate Hearing
Room for Space Policy
The group makes sure that the staffers are aware of some key issues such as:  1) The human space flight gap which will begin this year and importanceof minimizing this, 2) The need to have strong governmental support (organized approach, stimulus, regulation) for commercial human access to low earth orbit, and 3) The importance of utilizing the international space station as a platform for scientific research. Bruce, now on his 4th trip to Capitol Hill met with delegates from Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Kansas.

It is important to the Astronauts4Hire team that congress understands the current issues pertaining to NASA and the funding shift proposed by President Obama. Like never before, a paradigm is being set to focus NASA’s need for human space flight on commercial entities. The decisions made within the next year in Washington will have a dramatic and long term effect on the rate of growth of the commercial human spaceflight industry and will set the standard for government regulation.
Location: Washington Mall, Washington, DC, USA

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