What’s Happening in Space Policy April 19-25, 2026

What’s Happening in Space Policy April 19-25, 2026

By Marcia Smith | Posted: April 19, 2026 6:20 pm ET | Last Updated: April 19, 2026 6:20 pm ET

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of April 19-25, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

It’s a busy week. Let’s start on Capitol Hill.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman welcomed the Artemis II astronauts back to Houston on April 11. On Wednesday, he’ll testify to the House SS&T committee about the FY2027 budget request. 

On Wednesday, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on NASA’s FY2027 budget request (the “President’s Budget Request” or PBR) with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman as the only witness. One might anticipate a celebratory atmosphere following the wonderfully successful Artemis II mission, but President Trump’s proposal to make drastic cuts to NASA’s non-human spaceflight programs likely will dampen the mood.

Trump is proposing a $5.6 billion cut (from $24.4 billion to $18.8 billion) to NASA’s base budget. It’s about a 23 percent cut to the agency overall, with 46 percent less for science, approximately 30 percent less each for technology, aeronautics, and space operations, and 9.5 percent more for the Moon-to-Mars program (“exploration”). The latter doesn’t include the additional multi-year money exploration got in last year’s reconciliation bill.

The new request is very similar to FY2026, which Congress completely rejected on a bipartisan basis. But House SS&T Democrats released a report on Friday confirming whistleblower complaints that while Congress was still considering that request, NASA officials began cutting programs at the direction of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Ranking Member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said NASA acted “illegally, without any approval from Congress. The agency violated the basic separation-of-powers framework set forth in the Constitution.”

The report acknowledges it happened before Isaacman took the reins at the agency. Now he “must follow the law, defend the agency, and protect NASA from OMB, as well as any other political actors who seek to coerce the agency into defying the will of Congress.” Isaacman’s job is to support the President’s request and he’s said it has all the money NASA needs, but the HSS&T Democrats’ report is not about dollar numbers, but the agency following the law. Isaacman almost certainly will be asked to assure the committee he will spend FY2026 appropriations as Congress directed, not based on what OMB put in the FY2027 request.

In an op-ed also published on Friday, HSS&T Chair Brian Babin (R-TX) didn’t address that issue, but laid out a “Vision for America’s Next Era in Space.” While strongly supporting the Artemis program as a proving ground for eventual human exploration of Mars, he stresses that human exploration is only one part of what Congress wants NASA to do: “Equally important, NASA’s strength lies in its breadth. It is not solely a human exploration agency. Science, aeronautics, and technology development are foundational capabilities that enable everything else.”  Isaacman says he supports everything NASA does as well. The question is how he can do it all with 23 percent less money. Should be an interesting hearing.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) will chair a hearing on the Department of Commerce’s FY2027 budget request on Wednesday. The Department includes NOAA and the Office of Space Commerce.

The Senate and House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittees will hear from Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick this week (Wednesday and Thursday, respectively). The Department of Commerce includes NOAA, which operates the nation’s civil weather and space weather satellites and includes the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) that is developing the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS). The PBR calls for a 28 percent cut to NOAA overall.  It would move OSC out of NOAA and up to the Secretary’s office (something that’s been talked about for years), with a budget request of just $11 million, down from $55 million appropriated for FY2026. The requested cut is similar to FY2026 and, as with NASA, Congress rejected most of it. We’ll have to wait and see how much discussion there is about NOAA and OSC at the hearings considering the breadth of responsibilities the Department has.

The appropriations subcommittees didn’t have hearings on NASA last year. Space News reports that Senate CJS subcommittee chair Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) said at the Space Symposium last week that he will have one this year and he opposes the proposed cuts to both NASA and NOAA. Will be interesting to hear if he says anything about it on Wednesday.

Off the Hill, there’s lots going on. NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) head Nicky Fox will be very busy at several public events. On Tuesday, she’ll speak at the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) meeting in Baltimore at 11:00 am ET (available virtually). Then at 4:00 pm ET she, Isaacman and others will hold a press conference at Goddard Space Flight Center to unveil the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Fox enjoys reminding everyone that Roman, which is getting ready for launch later this year, is under cost and ahead of schedule. Hopefully they’ll announce the launch date at the news conference. The next day (Wednesday), she speaks at a Washington Space Business Roundtable (WSBR) luncheon in D.C.

MEPAG is a three-day meeting with lots of great speakers, including Lori Glaze, Acting Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate and head of the Moon-to-Mars program. She’s a planetary geologist by training and was head of SMD’s Planetary Science Division (PSD) before moving over to Exploration. She and Fox are championing the synergies between science and exploration.

SMD is ending its financial support for its assessment/analysis groups or”AGs” at the end of month so this will be the final MEPAG meeting in its current form. OPAG has a virtual meeting on Monday, too. Some of the AGs are trying to find a way to keep their collaborations going without direct NASA support. Louise Procktor, the current head of PSD who had to deliver the news to the AGs earlier this year, will speak at both MEPAG and OPAG.

Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander of U.S. Space Command, will speak at a CSIS event on Tuesday.

On the national security space front, Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander of U.S. Space Command, headlines a CSIS event on “Space and the Future of Warfare” on Tuesday. During a fireside chat, he’ll discuss the “evolving role of space effects in modern warfare, key trends in the space security landscape, and how U.S. space operations are informing priorities for capabilities and investment.” At the Space Symposium last week, he focused on the need for a new space strategy he calls “maneuver warfare” — the need for satellites to be maneuverable instead of fixed targets.

That’s followed by a government-industry panel featuring Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Scott Stapp now with DEFCON AI; Tony Frazier from LeoLabs; Even Rogers from True Anomaly; Chirag Parikh who founded his own company Indutara Space after serving as Executive Secretary of the National Space Council in the Biden Administration; and Mike Gancio from the Senate Intelligence Committee and former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Space.  Sounds great!

CSIS has a webinar tomorrow (Monday), too, with Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Strategic Forces subcommittee. Expect the space domain to be addressed there, too.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below. Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Monday, April 20

Monday-Thursday, April 20-23

Monday-Friday, April 20-24

Tuesday, April 21

Tuesday-Thursday, April 21-23

Wednesday, April 22

Wednesday-Thursday, April 22-23

Thursday, April 23

Last Updated: Apr 19, 2026 6:20 pm ET

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