Congressman John Culberson on a Good Day for Space

The newly-approved federal budget includes great news for fans of space exploration and development. Texas Congressman John Culberson led the fight for a Europa mission, the SLS rocket, commercial crew and more. He tells us why on this week’s show. Director of Advocacy Casey Dreier is blown away by the support for planetary science. We once again visit spectacular comet 67/P with Emily Lakdawalla. You might win a signed copy of Randall Munroe’s “Thing Explainer” in the What’s Up space trivia contest.

Related Links:

• An Extraordinary Budget for NASA in 2016
• Planetary Radio Extra: Casey Dreier on the 2016 NASA Budget
• Congress: NASA must not only go to Europa, it must land
• Congressman John Culberson
• Worth the wait: First public release of Rosetta science camera images of comet 67P
• Curiosity Stories From AGU

This week's prizes are a lovely Planetary Radio t-shirt and a signed copy of Randall “XKCD” Munroe’s “Thing Explainer.”

This week's question:

What Apollo spacecraft was name Falcon? Give us the mission number and type of spacecraft.

To submit your answer:

Complete the contest entry form at http://planetary.org/radiocontest or write to us at [email protected] no later than Tuesday, December 29th at 8am Pacific Time. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Last week's question:

What are the four worlds in our solar system that sand dunes have been discovered on?

Answer:

The answer will be revealed next week.

Question from the week before:

What was the first Japanese lunar orbiter? Careful, this is tricky.

Answer:

The first Japanese lunar orbiter was tiny Hagoromo in 1990.