President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-2 (SPD-2) today. Its focus is reforming commercial space regulations and creating a “one-stop shop” for the commercial space sector at the Department of Commerce. The White House released the text of SPD-2 this afternoon.
NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Director Bob Cabana hopes to have the second Mobile Launcher (ML) for the Space Launch System (SLS) under contract in the next 10 months and ready to support SLS launches 5 years from now. He also is excited about the first commercial crew test flights that are scheduled to take place this year.
President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-2 (SPD-2) today with Vice President Mike Pence at his side. SPD-2 implements recommendations made by the White House National Space Council at its February 2018 meeting. Pence chairs the Space Council. The Directive is focused on reforming commercial space regulations and creating a “one-stop shop” for the commercial space sector at the Department of Commerce.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for May 23, 2018: House appropriators clear funding bill for FAA space office; U.S. Postal Service issues Sally Ride stamp. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
At a Senate budget hearing today, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine assured Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) that he now agrees that climate change is happening and humans are the primary cause. Schatz opposed Bridenstine’s confirmation as NASA Administrator in part because of their disagreement on this issue, but today he praised Bridenstine for the evolution of his views and commitment to ensure the integrity of NASA’s climate science research.
NOAA revealed today that the premier instrument on its new GOES-17 geostationary weather satellite is not working properly. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) has 16 channels to observe the Earth in different wavelengths. Thirteen are in the infrared (IR) and near-infrared (near-IR) bands and need to be cooled to do their job, but something is wrong with the mechanical cooling system. NOAA and other experts are trying to determine the root cause and how to remedy it.
The White House is objecting to the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC’s) call for a U.S. Space Command to be created as a subunit of U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). The provision is part of the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) approved by HASC on May 9. The House began consideration of the bill, H.R. 5515, today (Tuesday). The White House’s Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) says the provision is premature.
NASA and the communications satellite company Iridium shared a ride to orbit today on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff of the “ride-share” launch was on time at 3:47 pm ET from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. NASA’s GRACE-FO twin Earth science satellites and Iridium’s five Iridium-NEXT communications satellites were all successfully deployed after launch.
Jim Bridenstine announced several personnel changes today as he settles into his new job as NASA Administrator. Among them is permanently appointing Steve Jurczyk as Associate Administrator — the highest ranking civil servant at the agency. Jurczyk has been in that position on an acting basis since March.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of May 20-26, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week. [We’ve updated this twice to reflect the successful launches of China’s Queqiao last night (Sunday) and Orbital ATK’s OA-9 early this morning.]