Progressive NASA and Space Policy Under a New Administration
NASA is in crisis—overburdened, under-funded and inefficient. Yet the progressive legacy of space, which dates back to JFK, is being quietly reborn: NASA can reinvent itself as a critical resource in climate change mitigation; the UN and some in the U.S. military are collaborating to prevent space weapons from becoming an arms race with China; and progressive “NewSpace” entrepreneurs are creating new domestic high-tech jobs. Before 2009, a new progressive space policy needs to be devised and advocated beyond the traditional space constituencies, to upgrade Bush's failing space exploration vision. Who better to initiate this work than the Netroots?
Lori Garver is president of Capital Space, an aerospace consulting firm. Lori was space policy advisory to Senator Kerry’s presidential bid in 2004 and to the Clinton campaign in 2008. In 2002, Lori trained in Russia for a sponsored Soyuz flight to the ISS. Until 2001 she was NASA’s associate administrator for policy. Before joining NASA, she was executive director of the National Space Society. Prior to NSS, she worked for Senator John Glenn. Lori serves as a space analyst for various media outlets, including NPR, CNN, Good Morning America, Today Show, ABC Nightly News and BBC.
Chris Bowers co-founded Open Left in July of 2007. He was a full-time editor at MyDD from May 2004 until June 2007, and has been the Treasurer of BlogPac since March of 2006.
He has worked as a consultant for MoveOn, Media Matters, SEIU, Progressive Strategies, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. The latter allowed him to work on new media for Joe Sestak for Senate. Chris was also recently a fellow at the New Organizing Institute, which allowed him to work with Americans for Financial Reform.
Chris is 36, and recently moved to Washington, D.C. with his wife Natasha Chart.
Patricia Grace Smith served as FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, where she headed the office responsible for licensing, regulating, and promoting the US commercial space transportation industry, including operations of launch vehicles and spaceports. During eleven years as head of the office, FAA became the recognized global leader on private human spaceflight issues. She forged partnerships with the Air Force on launch safety standards, and kept regulatory matters and insurance issues constantly in the public forum. Previously, she held leadership positions at FCC, National Association of Broadcasters, Department of Defense, Defense Communications Agency and Senate Commerce Committee.
George T. Whitesides is the Executive Director of the National Space Society and Senior Advisor to Virgin Galactic. NSS is the largest space advocacy group dedicated to human spaceflight. Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson, is on track to become the world’s first spaceline. He is an advocate of participatory exploration, using new technologies to engage the public in space missions. Whitesides is chairman of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Working Group for the FAA’s Space Transportation division. A Fulbright scholar, Whitesides is a graduate of Cambridge and Princeton Universities, a private pilot and a certified parabolic flight coach.
Andrew Hoppin was appointed as the first ever Chief Information Officer for the New York State Senate in February 2009 with a mission to dramatically improve government transparency, citizen participation, and operational efficiency for the Senate through technology. The CIO's Office works in three main realms: opening up the Senate's legislative and administrative data for public access (for transparency), overhauling the Senate's internal communications and collaboration infrastructure (for efficiency), and launching new Web 2.0 / social media technologies for the Senate (public participation). He was also elected by his peers to serve on the New York State CIO Leadership Council, and selected by GovTech as the 2010 New York State Public Sector CIO of the Year.
Previously, Andrew co-founded the NASA CoLab program at NASA Ames Research Center, which increased efficiency and transparency at NASA by building new partnerships between NASA and external communities of practice such as the entrepreneurial technology community, the global open-source software movement, and constituents in the virtual world
of "Second Life."
Andrew has also founded several startup technology companies and has served as a strategy consultant, Advisor, or Board member for leading technology and political organizations such as the Craigslist Foundation, Netroots Nation, the Space Generation Advisory Council, the New Organizing Institute, and Civicspace Labs.
He got his start in online politics through organizing the New York for Clark movement in 2004, and then helping to manage the national Clark for President campaign's data and web applications.
Full bio and contact information at: http://globehoppin.com/about
