Senate Commerce Hearing on U.S. Leadership in Space, March 2019

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee held a hearing on U.S. leadership in space on March 13, 2019.  At the hearing, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine revealed that the agency is studying whether it is possible to launch the first flight of the uncrewed Orion spacecraft, Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), on two commercial rockets instead of the Space Launch System (SLS).  SpacePolicyOnline.com published a summary of that aspect of the hearing on March 13, 2019:  NASA Studying Launching EM-1 on Commerce Rockets, Not SLS.

Witnesses at the hearing were:

• Jim Bridenstine, Administrator, NASA
• Kevin O’Connell, Director, Office of Space Commerce, Department of Commerce