ESA’s Vega-C rocket returned to flight today almost two years after a failure that contributed to Europe’s loss of space launch autonomy. Coupled with delays in development of the large Ariane 6, Europe has had to buy launches from the U.S. company SpaceX, but the successful first launch of Ariane 6 this summer and Vega-C’s flight today puts Europe back in the space launch business.
NASA’s program to return American astronauts to the Moon is encountering more delays. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced today that the second flight, Artemis II, is now planned for April 2026 instead of September 2025, and Artemis III for mid-2027 instead of September 2026. Nelson nonetheless is optimistic the incoming Trump Administration will continue Artemis now that it is on a firm path forward to get Americans back on the Moon before China gets there.
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Jared Isaacman as his nominee to be the next NASA Administrator. Isaacman is a tech industry billionaire who has flown two spaceflights on Elon Musk’s Crew Dragon spacecraft already, with another pending plus the first crewed flight to Earth orbit on Starship. Isaacman’s most recent Crew Dragon flight, Polaris Dawn, included the first commercial spacewalks.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of December 1-7, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
NASA has provided more details of its decision to cancel the VIPER robotic lunar rover mission in response to a letter from a key House committee. It doesn’t specifically answer how it now will obtain the data VIPER was to glean, but offers some insight into the agency’s surprise decision to terminate a spacecraft that was already built and partially through pre-launch tests, yet continue the $323 million services contract to land it on the Moon.
Japan’s efforts to develop the Epsilon S rocket suffered another setback when the engine exploded during a test on Tuesday (Japan time). A test last year ended the same way. Epsilon S is an improved version of the Epsilon small rocket in development for almost two decades by JAXA and IHI Industries to compete on the world market for launches of cubesats and other small satellites.
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com from November 18-24, 2024 including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.
Cosmonauts opening the new Progress MS-29 cargo ship that docked with the International Space Station yesterday observed a toxic smell and droplets. Decontamination procedures reportedly were implemented on both the U.S. and Russian segments. NASA posted a statement late today that air quality now is normal and there is no danger to the crew.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next two weeks, November 24-December 7, 2024, and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this week except for pro forma sessions and will return for legislative business next week.
As the NASA community ponders how the agency, especially the Artemis program, may fare in the second Trump Administration, one industry veteran is suggesting a new policy approach: have NASA focus on validating whether there really is the possibility of an economically self-sustaining presence on the Moon. That prospect underpins the excitement about Artemis, but NASA just canceled the one project that would have started answering that question — VIPER.