What’s Happening in Space Policy October 25-November 1, 2026

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of October 25-November 1, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess, except for pro forma sessions, until after the midterm elections.

During the Week

We’re including an extra day, Sunday, November 1, in this week’s What’s Happening because the United States changes back to Standard Time that day at 2:00 am before we publish our next edition. We also want to note that the UK and Europe returned to Standard Time this morning, so Central Europe is five hours ahead of Eastern Time instead of six, and the U.K. is four hours ahead instead of five, for this one week.

Among the interesting events this week is tomorrow’s (Monday’s) Science Mission Directorate virtual Town Hall meeting to explain NASA’s new Competition Model 2.0 on how the agency will compete science missions in the future. In a blog post, SMD Associate Administrator Nicky Fox said the new approach “starts from a simple idea: compete on the science first” without requiring “detailed engineering plans, cost, and implementation work until they are truly needed to make a decision.”

We have heard you. We have listened. We know that the burden of bringing great ideas forward has been too heavy for too long. It has taken years to move mission concepts through the current two-step process. This has often come with contract management challenges, unpredictability, and not enough funding.  NASA is committed to doing better — and I’m excited to share with you how we’re making it happen. — Nicky Fox

The virtual event is open to the public. The link is in the blog post, which goes into considerable detail about the changes and the rationale behind them. Fox will be there along with other NASA science leaders to present the new vision.

The briefing takes place at the same time as the annual Division on Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Spokane, Washington that starts today (Sunday) and runs through the end of the week. DPS is always full of fascinating news about discoveries in planetary science and key awards are presented. The Planetary Society’s Casey Dreier and Jack Kiraly will receive the 2026 DPS Masursky Award for “Saving NASA Science.” Dreier and Kiraly were very active — and successful — last year advocating for Congress to reject the deep cuts to NASA science proposed by the Trump Administration for FY2026. They’re doing it again right now for FY2027 (none of the 12 FY2027 appropriations bills have cleared Congress yet).

They’re among an impressive list of plenary speakers that also includes NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Barbara Cohen who will talk about “The Science of Artemis.” The Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) also will meet at DPS. NASA discontinued its financial support for all the Assessment and Analysis Groups, or AGs, but several have found a way to continue. SBAG’s meeting is in a hybrid format on Thursday.

Another AAS, the American Astronautical Society, has one of its flagship conferences this week, too. The Von Braun Space Exploration Symposium starts tomorrow at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, close to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The symposium focuses on “Accelerating Exploration,” especially the Artemis program, with speakers from NASA and industry. A NASA press release highlights who’ll be there from the agency.

A panel tomorrow afternoon on “Artemis III and Beyond” includes speakers from Blue Origin and SpaceX. Those two companies are building the landers that will take astronauts down to and back from the lunar surface. Artemis III, scheduled for next year, will test them in earth orbit before the landings that are planned for 2028. A “Washington Update” features Allen Cutler, a former Senate appropriations committee staffer who is now President of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, and Susan Nelson, Principal of IBEX2 Solutions and a long-time D.C. aerospace insider. A paid virtual option is available. (Times on the agenda are Central Time, add one for Eastern.)

Lots of other great choices as usual, including Silicon Valley Space Week near NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. The three-day meeting is split in half: the first 1.5 days are “Satellite Innovation” and the second “Milsat Symposium.” All in the same location.

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.

Sunday-Friday, October 25-30

• 58th American Astronomical Society Division on Planetary Sciences (DPS) Annual Meeting, Spokane, WA

Monday, October 26

• NASA SMD Town Hall Meeting on New Competition Model 2.0, virtual, 2:00-3:00 pm ET

Monday-Wednesday, October 26-28

• 2026 American Astronautical Society Von Braun Space Exploration Symposium, Huntsville, AL

Tuesday, October 27

• Boeing Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Telecon, virtual, 10:30 am ET

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 27-28

• Space Summit for a Resilient Future (Novaspace), Toulouse, FR
• 4th Defence in Space Conference (DISC), London, UK

Tuesday-Thursday, October 27-29

• 2026 Silicon Valley Space Week, Mountain View, CA
  • Satellite Innovation, October 27-28
  • Milsat Symposium, October 28-29

Thursday, October 29

• NASA/CSA Spacewalk at ISS (Menon/Kutryk), 8:00 am ET (NASA coverage begins 6:30 am ET)
• FCC Open Meeting, 45 L St., NE, Washington, DC/online, 10:30 am -12:30 pm ET
• Applying AI/SI to the GEOINT Mission (Space News/Vantor), virtual, 1:00 pm ET
• SBAG Community Meeting at DPS, Spokane, WA/online, 2:45-3:45 pm ET (11:45 am-12:45 pm PACIFIC Time)

Thursday-Friday, October 29-30

• Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space (Natl Acad), Washington, DC

Saturday, October 31

• NASA CHAPEA Mission 2 Egress Ceremony, JSC, 3:00 pm ET (livestreamed on YouTube)

Sunday, November 1

• Daylight Saving Time Ends in the United States, 2:00 am