The highly anticipated launch of Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) of its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft was scrubbed today for technical reasons. A new launch date has not been set, but it will not be tomorrow.
Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Chirag Parikh to be Executive Secretary of the White House National Space Council. Harris chairs the Space Council, which will hold its first meeting under her leadership this fall. Parikh is very well known and respected in the space policy community and the announcement is being met with wide praise.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 1-7, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is in recess except for pro forma sessions until mid-September, although there are committee work days before that.
Russia finally issued a statement on July 30 about what happened the previous day when the Nauka module suddenly fired its engines after docking with the International Space Station (ISS). Blaming it on a software error, the statement downplayed the incident, just as NASA officials did during a teleconference the day the incident occurred. But a NASA flight director was more blunt saying the space station brought “a knife to a gun fight” during the ordeal. Days later NASA updated its report on how much the ISS’s attitude was disrupted — 540 degrees, not 45.
The Government Accountability Office today denied protests by Blue Origin and Dynetics against NASA’s award of a Human Landing System contract to SpaceX in April. GAO determined NASA did not violate procurement laws or regulations and its evaluation of the bids was reasonable. Blue Origin vows to continue its efforts to secure a second contract nontheless.
Russia’s Nauka module docked at the International Space Station this morning, good news after years of delays and a troubled eight-day post-launch journey. But suddenly its engines began firing for unknown reasons, putting the orbiting outpost into the wrong orientation. Ground controllers had to use engines on two other docked vehicles to right the situation. All is well at the moment, but NASA decided to postpone the launch of Boeing’s OFT-2 mission for several days while the bizarre happenings are investigated.
If all goes according to plan Russia’s Nauka science module will dock to the International Space Station tomorrow morning and an uncrewed Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on Saturday.
Jeff Bezos, who just stepped down as head of Amazon.com, is throwing his energies into his space company, Blue Origin. Newly back from a quick trip to space on his New Shepard rocket, today Bezos sent a letter to NASA offering to waive $2 billion of the $6 billion he bid to build a Human Landing System to return astronauts to the lunar surface. NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX but did not have enough money for a second contractor. Bezos wants to change that.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week, plus a day, of July 25-August 1, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
The House is getting ready to debate most of the FY2022 appropriations bills this week. The first stop is the House Rules Committee that will decide which of the hundreds of proposed amendments will make it to the House floor for consideration. Among them are amendments that could affect where U.S. Space Command will be headquartered, what Department is responsible for civil space situational awareness, and how much NASA will spend on certain programs.