Articles

Originally published in Politico

CROSS BORDER ADVOCACY: The Planetary Society’s annual Day of Action on Wednesday, which traditionally only canvases the halls of Congress, included the Canadian Parliament for the first time, Brendan Curry, the chief of Washington operations at the nonprofit, told us. Nearly 150 members of the society — who are not space professionals but are passionate about the field — had 155 meetings with lawmakers and staff in both Washington and Ottawa lobbying lawmakers to invest in planetary science missions.

“Perseverance is on everyone’s lips,” Curry said of lawmakers’ interest in the rover that recently landed on Mars. Other top priorities for the society include funding future portions of the mission to bring a sample of Mars back to Earth, the Europa Clipper program, which would study Jupiter’s moon, and a NASA project to detect near-Earth asteroids that could threaten Earth.

TV personality Bill Nye, who leads the group, met with lawmakers including Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Brian Babin (R-Texas), the chair and ranking member of the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. Nye and members of the society’s board also met with Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Space Subcommittee, and Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.), who leads the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA.

THE ‘DIRECT THREAT’ OF ORBITAL DEBRIS: The FCC must address the growing threat of orbital debris before it damages spacecraft, pollutes the environment and even creates unsafe conditions on Earth, Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) appealed to acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel on Thursday. Specifically, he is asking the FCC to better regulate planned constellations of hundreds of thousands of small satellites and study the cumulative impact they could have on the environment.

“When we talk about global sustainability, our efforts cannot stop at our geographic border, or even at the limits of our atmosphere,” he wrote in the letter obtained by POLITICO. “It is time for the FCC to take responsibility, so we can ensure our planet — and the part of space near Earth — are safe and sustainable for years to come.”