'The Paper of Record'

摘要

Over the past quarter-century, as the space community has discussed and debated policy issues in the civilian, national security and commercial sectors, SpaceNews, from its first issue on, has been an invaluable source of information, underpinning those discussions and providing a central forum for debate. The publication has performed two essential functions. One has been high-quality news reporting in all areas of space activity, in the United States and elsewhere around the globe. SpaceNews has served as the "paper of record" for our community. The other extremely valuable contribution is the paper's role in providing an open forum for opinions on the many issues confronting the space sector. It is impossible to have a substantive public discussion of policy issues and alternatives without knowing what is actually happening, and the paper has kept the U.S. and global space community extremely well informed. For those of us who work inside the Washington Beltway, weekly reports are probably not our primary way of staying up to the moment with U.S. space news, but they are essential to let us know what is happening in the rest of the world. For the space community outside of Washington, reporting on White House and congressional space policy actions at least gives some sense of the complex and often confusing path leading to U.S. policy actions and choices.