The Space Mining Hearing That Went Down A Rabbit Hole

Keith’s note: This morning the House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on space mining. It was obvious that this oddly-timed hearing – one that is not exactly of immediate importance – was, at best, a distraction. More often than not it was a chance to swipe at the other side on unrelated things while most (but not all) of the panel tried to stay on topic. Rep. Gosar chaired the hearing and mumbled through his text as if he has not slept for a week. Rep. Stansbury asked why the whole space mining thing (still decades away) was even being discussed when more important things need their attention. Rep. Rosendale sort of agreed with her, brought up near term domestic terrestrial mining issues, and took issue with a lot of what Greg Autry said. Indeed Rosendale was incredulous about mining issues and punctured one remark with “in OUTER SPACE?!?” There was lots of economic babble, a whole lotta China bashing, and gotcha comments (from both sides). What a waste of time. And of course at 1:20:00 in this video Trump Administration boarding party alumni Greg Autry took the bait from Rep. Eli Crane about “President Biden and his son” and dove into the conspiratorial talking point rabbit hole about consulting fees “for who knows what” while trying to say that he wants space policy to be non-partisan. Uh huh. Watch the hearing here also see “Hearing Preview: Moon Mining, China Bashing, And Space Advocate Choir Practice“).