House Space Panel Members Announced

The U.S. Capitol
The U.S. Capitol (Image credit: Office of the Clerk, U.S. Capitol)

WASHINGTON — Human spaceflight interests will be well represented on the House Science, Space and Technology space and aeronautics subcommittee this year with nearly half of its members hailing from states with NASA manned spaceflight centers.

Lawmakers from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas hold nine of the subcommittee’s 19 seats including the chairmanship, held by Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.). Also included in the tally are the ex officio seats held by Texas Reps. Ralph Hall and Eddie Bernice Johnson, the full committee’s chairman and ranking Democrat, respectively.

The committee officially organized Feb. 10, approving an oversight agenda that includes NASA’s space shuttle transition plans, international space station utilization and operation, and federal climate research activities.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), currently recovering in a Houston hospital from a gunshot wound to the head, has kept her seat on the subcommittee, which she chaired in 2009 and 2010.

This article was provided by Space News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

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Editor-in-Chief, SpaceNews

Brian Berger is the Editor-in-Chief of SpaceNews, a bi-weekly space industry news magazine, and SpaceNews.com. He joined SpaceNews covering NASA in 1998 and was named Senior Staff Writer in 2004 before becoming Deputy Editor in 2008. Brian's reporting on NASA's 2003 Columbia space shuttle accident and received the Communications Award from the National Space Club Huntsville Chapter in 2019. Brian received a bachelor's degree in magazine production and editing from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.