Critiquing the President's Space Plan

摘要

Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson today represents some two-thirds of NASA's Houston-area civil-servant and contractor work force. But thanks to a congressional redistricting imposed last year by the Republican-dominated Texas state legislature, the voters he will ask to re-elect him this November are more likely to work at George Bush Intercontinental Airport than NASA's Johnson Space Center. But the fourth-term lawmaker has not lost his taste for NASA issues. This past September, Lampson reintroduced his Space Exploration Act, which calls for NASA to develop the means to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit. He first introduced the legislation in 2002.