Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 22-28, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this week except for pro forma sessions.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today that it has decided the Arecibo radio telescope is beyond repair and will be decommissioned. Two of the cables that support the scientific equipment hovering above the giant dish nestled in the mountains of Puerto Rico have failed and NSF worries the entire structure is in danger of collapse. NASA scientists use the telescope and the agency said it respected NSF’s decision.
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved the Space Preservation and Conjunction Emergency (SPACE) Act today, but with significant changes from the version introduced last month. Chief among them is the omission of language elevating NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce to a new Bureau of Space Commerce reporting directly to the Secretary of Commerce.
The first operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, Crew-1, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 11:01 pm ET. The hatch between Crew Dragon and ISS is scheduled to open in about two hours at 1:10 am ET after conducting a series of leak checks. The four arriving astronauts will be greeted by the three ISS crew members already aboard. [UPDATE: The hatch was opened at 1:02 am ET.]
SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on time at 7:27 pm ET Sunday carrying four astronauts for NASA to the International Space Station (ISS). If all goes as planned, they will arrive this evening, November 16, about 11:00 pm ET to begin a 6-month stay. A problem with propellant heaters on the spacecraft shortly after launch was resolved in a few hours and all is well currently.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 15-21, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
NASA and SpaceX have decided to wait until Sunday to launch Crew-1, the first operational mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon space transportation system. Bad weather delayed the departure of SpaceX’s drone ship needed to recover the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage. The launch now is scheduled for Sunday, November 15, at 7:27 pm ET.
A panel of experts established by NASA to assess its plans to return samples of Mars to Earth is recommending that NASA delay the launch of the next two spacecraft and build the budget around a higher cost estimate. The panel strongly supports the three-spacecraft mission, a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency, but concluded the current plan is too ambitious.
NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has concluded that the Gateway space station NASA plans to put in lunar orbit as part of the Artemis program likely will not be ready in time to support the Trump Administration’s plan to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024. NASA said earlier this year that Gateway is not needed for the landing, but expected to have an initial version in place by 2023 nonetheless.
Weather permitting, the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will lift off from Kennedy Space Center on Saturday after clearing its Flight Readiness Review (FRR) yesterday. In conjunction with that process, NASA formally certified Crew Dragon as meeting NASA’s technical and safety human spaceflight requirements, the last milestone in the years-long effort to develop and test this “commercial crew” space transportation system.