What’s Happening in Space Policy May 31-June 6, 2026

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of May 31-June 6, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate and House are in session this week.

During the Week

Many of us in the space community will spend the week waiting to hear from Blue Origin about their investigation into New Glenn’s explosion on Thursday. Finding the root cause likely will take some time, but they may have news to share in the nearer term. The SpaceBucket has a good YouTube showing the damage to the pad and the transporter-erector. Yesterday (Saturday), Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp posted on X that they’d just gained some access to the pad to see first hand how it looks and “have a good rebuild plan in place.” Another New Glenn first stage (booster) and second stages (GS2s) in preparation in the Horizontal Integration Facility near the pad “appear healthy from quick looks.”

We have regained some access to Launch Complex 36 and are actively investigating the hotfire anomaly. We will start clearing the pad soon and have a good rebuild plan in place. The booster and GS2s in the integration facility appear healthy from quick looks.

— Dave Limp (@davill) May 30, 2026

Elsewhere, NASA is hosting a public event at NASA HQ tomorrow (Monday) with three of the Crew-11 members: NASA astronauts Zena Cardman (commander) and Mike Fincke (pilot) and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui (mission specialist).  They and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov are the crew that returned home in January, a month early because Fincke experienced a medical situation that couldn’t be diagnosed in space. Astronauts routinely make the rounds of Washington, especially Capitol Hill, at some point after their flights, but a public event at NASA HQ isn’t usually part of it. The media is invited, but won’t be able to interview the astronauts and there’s no indication of a livestream.  NASA’s press release says it’s part of “NASA’s Frontiers Forum: Voices Shaping the Future of Space speaking series designed to convene bold thinkers and senior leaders at the forefront of exploration and innovation” about which “the agency will share more details soon.”

Up on Capitol Hill this week, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) will mark up the FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday. The NDAA is one of the few “must-pass” bills every year and, indeed, Congress has enacted the NDAA every year since the first in 1961 (though they did it in 2020 only after overriding a veto by President Trump). Authorization bills set policy. They also may recommend funding levels and although Congress typically provides money through appropriations rather than authorization bills, the NDAA is very influential.  HASC Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) released the “chairman’s mark” last week, which is the starting point for committee debate. Dozens and dozens of amendments usually are submitted and the markup, which begins at 10:00 am ET, lasts long into the night. Thursday’s markup is just a first step in a long process. The Senate Armed Services Committee will mark up their version next week, though unlike HASC they do it behind closed doors.

The Administration is requesting $1.15 trillion for defense through the regular appropriations process, of which $59 billion is for the Space Force. It’s seeking additional money through a reconciliation bill, a separate legislative process that’s encountering some pushback so it’s not clear if that’ll succeed. If it does, the totals would be $1.5 trillion for defense overall, with $71 billion of that for the Space Force.

The National Academies’ Space Studies Board (SSB), Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), and Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA) are holding meetings this week at the Keck Center in D.C. SSB’s Committee on Planetary Protection (COPP) also is meeting virtually Monday and Tuesday.

COPP is discussing “Limits of Terrestrial Life and the Probability of Growth on Mars.” SSB, ASEB, and BPA are discussing a broad range of topics. As a quick sample, on Tuesday afternoon NASA’s Lori Glaze, now Associate Administrator (AA) for the reformulated Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate, Joel Montalbano (now her deputy for LEO), and Greg Stover (from the new Research and Technology Mission Directorate) are on a panel about the “Ignition Program.” On Wednesday morning, NASA AA Amit Kshatriya will speak about NASA issues and priorities. It’s probably too soon for any of them to offer insight into the impact of the New Glenn explosion on Artemis plans, but still could be informative beyond what we’ve already heard at the Ignition event, about workforce changes, the reorganization announcement, and the Moon Base update.

Science will also be a major theme. Following Kshatriya on Wednesday, Mark Clampin, Deputy AA for the Science Mission Directorate, will talk about NASA’s science issues and priorities. That afternoon, Andrew Steele, Staff Scientist at Carnegie Science and Antonio Elias, who retired as CTO of Orbital ATK and is a member of SSB, will discuss alternative approaches to Mars Sample Return. Thursday’s SSB/BPA meeting will bring in science at NSF and DOE among several other topics.  (Note that the NSF-NASA-DOE Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee, AAAC, is meeting virtually all day Monday.) BPA’s virtual-only session on Friday is about AI in Physics and Astronomy.

Republican and Democratic staff from the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Brent Blevins and Pam Whitney, will provide a congressional viewpoint Wednesday afternoon.  The whole four days look very interesting. Open sessions will be livestreamed.

Lots more going on this week here and overseas. To highlight just a few: in the U.S. — Explore Mars is holding an event on Capitol Hill on “Harnessing the Moon to Enable Mars” on Tuesday, the American Bar Association holds its annual Space Law Symposium in DC on Thursday, and the National Space Society has its annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in McLean, VA Thursday-Sunday; overseas — the IAA’s 2nd Latin American Conference on Space & Society is in Argentina Monday-Saturday, the IAF’s Global Space Conference on Climate Change is in Rwanda Tuesday-Thursday, and the 2nd Space Capacity Allocation for Sustainability of Space Activities Workshop is in Italy Wednesday-Friday.

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, June 1

• NSF-NASA-DOE Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), virtual, 9:00-5:00 am ET
• NASA Public Event with Crew-11, NASA HQ, 300 E St., S.W., Washington, DC, 11:00 am ET (in-person only as far as we can tell)

Monday-Tuesday, June 1-2

• Committee on Planetary Protection (Natl Acad), virtual, 8:30 am-5:30 pm ET each day

Monday-Saturday, June 1-6

• IAA 2nd Latin American Conference on Space & Society, Salta, Argentina

Tuesday, June 2

• Harnessing the Moon to Enable Mars (Explore Mars), 2325 Rayburn House Office Building, 10:00-11:30 am ET
• Aerospace Nation with Rep. August Pfluger (Mitchell Inst), virtual, 12:00 pm ET

Tuesday-Thursday, June 2-4

• 2026 Global Space Conference on Climate Change (IAF), Kigali, Rwanda

Tuesday-Friday, June 2-5

• Space Studies Board (SSB), Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), and Board on Physics and Astronony (BPA) (Natl Acad), Keck Center, 500 5th St., NW, Washington, DC (Friday’s BPA meeting is virtual only), open sessions livestreamed

Wednesday-Thursday, June 3-4

• Space Tech Expo USA, Anaheim, CA

Wednesday-Friday, June 3-5

• 2nd Space Capacity Allocation for Sustainability of Space Activities Workshop, Milan, Italy

Thursday, June 4

• 2026 Space Law Symposium (ABA), Hogan Lovells, 555 13th St., NW, Washington, DC, 7:30 am-5:30 pm ET
• HASC Markup of FY2027 NDAA, 2118 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC, begins 10:00 am ET (livestreamed)
• Enabling the Final Frontier: Scaling Launch Capacity & Competition (PPI/CCIA), 385 Russell Senate Office Building, 2:45-4:00 pm ET

Thursday-Friday, June 4-5

• Space: Enabling Multi-Domain Operations Symposium (Assn of U.S. Army), Long Beach, CA

Thursday-Sunday, June 4-7

• International Space Development Conference (ISDC) 2026 (National Space Society), Hilton McLean Tysons Corner, McLean, VA