Candidates elected in 2016 must understand value of space exploration, industry says

Not many organizations arrange a National Press Club Newsmaker event with the hope of not getting their issue widely discussed.

But, a coalition of 13 organizations in the $330 billion a year space industry, with an interest in ensuring continued U.S. leadership in space, did that Friday at a Newsmaker recorded by C-SPAN.

Unveiling a four-page white paper on the value to the economy of space exploration which they are distributing to federal and state election candidates, Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham said "I would be perfectly happy if no one on the campaign trail said anything stupid about space." Former astronaut Sandra Magnus, now executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, added, that the group wants it to "become a non-issue," so momentum to move beyond low-Earth orbit continues.

Pointing out that many things that run the world, from cellphones, GPS signals, weather forecasts, agricultural data to TV signals, run on the backbone of platforms that have been put in space, Pelham called satellites "essential infrastructure."

Space "touches the inner fabric of our nation," said Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

The speakers noted that U.S. government investment in space programs has shrunk in recent years. Magnus called for the opposite: "We need a long-term commitment" to federal funding which the groups said leads to great rewards in security, jobs and the expansion of knowledge.

"Malaise is the chief threat we're addressing here," Pelham said.

Magnus noted that each new class of elected leaders needs to be educated on the benefits of the space industry. "We need a stability of purpose to plan, say, over a decade" not just budget cycle to budget cycle, she said.

As a result of budget cuts and changing plans, the report (available online here ) notes only Russia and China can launch humans into space.

Pelham also bemoaned export controls which kept American companies from selling some of their high-tech wares abroad. When America wouldn't sell the devices, he noted, other countries created their own. "Barriers shouldn't be erected so high" that we can't make common sense deals.

Pelham noted that writer P.J. O'Rourke is a Space Foundation board member and helped review the white paper and if O'Rourke had had his way the document would not have been four pages, but one sentence: "Space is good, keep investing."