Review - HR 8837 Introduced – Celestial Time

Back in June, Rep McClellan (D,VA) introduced HR 8837, the Celestial Time Standardization Act. The bill would require NASA to enable “the development of celestial time standardization”. No new funding is authorized by this bill.

Moving Forward

McClellan is a member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any specific opposition. I suspect that the bill would have substantial bipartisan support within the Committee. The main problem this bill will face in moving forward is the relative lack of space-geeky support in the House leadership that would be required to move the bill to the floor of the House.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, including a brief discussion of ‘relativistic effects’, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8837-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 6-26-24

Yesterday with just the House in session, there were 20 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 8837 To require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop celestial time standardization to support future operations and infrastructure on and around the Moon and other celestial bodies other than Earth, and for other purposes. McClellan, Jennifer L. [Rep.-D-VA-4]

No, this bill does not fall within the ‘normal’ scope of coverage of this blog, but it will be part of the expanding ‘Space Geek’ coverage that readers have been seeing in my ‘Short Takes’ posts.