Our Civil Fact Sheets and Reports

NASA's FY2013 Budget Request is a SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheet that tracked NASA's FY2013 budget request as it worked its way through Congress.  The fact sheet summarizes three key issues that arose while Congress debated the bill:  robotic Mars exploration, whether to transfer NOAA's weather satellite programs to NASA, and funding for the commercial crew program. 

It reflects action through passage of the second FY2013 Continuing Resolution on March 21, 2013, which completes congressional action on FY2013 appropriations.  However, since the funding figures in the bill (H.R. 933) and accompanying report must be adjusted for a rescission and a sequester included at the end of the bill (a reduction of 6.877 percent for most NASA programs), and NASA Administrator Bolden has indicated that he will exempt some  activities from across-the-board cuts, definitive totals cannot be added to the table in this report until NASA publicly releases such data.

The current date of this fact sheet is March 24, 2013.

Legislative Checklist:  Major Space-Related Legislation in the 112th Congress is a SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheet that tracked major space-related legislation as it moved through the 112th Congress (the years 2011-2012).

Bill numbers, report numbers, and dates when major steps in the legislative process -- such as subcommittee and full commitee markup, floor consideration, conference action, and signing into law -- are shown.  It includes funding bills for NASA, NOAA, DOD and the Office of Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal Aviation Administration, including the FY2013 Continuing Resolution that funds the government through March 27, 2013.  It also includes legislation to extend the government's authority to indemnify commercial launch services companies from claims by third parties (the general public) for certain amounts of money if there is a launch accident, to ease export controls on commercial satellitles, and to rename the Dryden Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong.

This fact sheet was updated many times throughout the 112th Congress.  This is the final version and is dated January 18, 2013.

Ever wonder what a congressional "markup" is and why you should be interested when one is being held? Our new fact sheet, "What's a Markup?: Answers to That and Other Legislative Mysteries ," is an easy to read introduction to the lexicon of Congress and the making of legislation. It offers a general overview of the typical path that legislation follows, but is not a comprehensive guide. The Senate and the House of Representatives have links on their home pages to scholarly reports on how our laws are made for those who require a detailed understanding. Ours is for those who just need the basics. A fresh coat of paint was put on this fact sheet in February 2011.

NASA's FY2012 Budget Request is a SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheet that tracked NASA's FY2012 budget request as it worked its way through Congress and shows the final FY2012 appropriations for the agency.  The report was most recently updated on January 11, 2012.

FY2012 Budget Documentation: Where To Find Agency Budgets is a SpacePolicyOnline.com Fact Sheet that provides links to FY2012 budget request documentation for U.S. government space activities. Included are links to budget documentation for the Department of Defense, Department of Energy's Office of Science, FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Service, NASA, and the U.S. Geological Survey (which operates the Landsat satellites). This fact sheet will not be updated.

NASA's FY2011 Appropriations: Final Action in the 112th Congress is a SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheet that tracked congressional action on NASA's FY2011 budget in the 112th Congress and shows the final appropriations amounts for the agency in the full-year Continuing Resolution (P.L. 112-10). The final version is dated April 19, 2011; it will not be updated again.

A historical SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheet that tracked action on NASA's FY2011 authorization and appropriations bills in the 111th Congress remains available, but is not updated. It includes the authorized levels for NASA for FY2011, FY2012 and FY2013.

A separate SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheet tracks the FY2012 request.

NASA's Project Constellation and the Future of Human Spaceflight (Historical Information) is a SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheet that provides historical information on NASA's Constellation program created under the George W. Bush administration and cancelled by President Barack Obama. This final update was written on May 24, 2011.

Box Score of 2010 Space Launches is a one-page fact sheet providing statistical data on the number of space launches -- successes and failures -- that put satellites into orbit during 2010. Launch totals are provided for the United States, Russia, Europe, China, Japan, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, and South Korea. It is dated January 2, 2011.