What’s Happening in Space Policy April 29-May 5, 2018
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of April 29-May 5, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess (except for pro forma sessions).
During the Week
With Congress is recess we get a bit of a respite this week. Still plenty of interesting events, but not as hectic as it’s been.
The Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) and Space Studies Board (SSB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are meeting this week. ASEB meets Monday-Tuesday and SSB Tuesday-Thursday, with Tuesday as a joint meeting of the two Boards. On Tuesday morning the Boards get updates from top NASA officials, congressional staff, and the White House Office of Management and Budget and Office of Science and Technology Policy. The agendas do not indicated if a webcast will be available.
On Wednesday evening, AIAA will hold its annual Spotlight Gala awards dinner. Among those being honored this year are SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell (Goddard Astronautics Award), Lockheed Martin’s Mary Snitch (AIAA Distinguished Service Award), and recently retired FAA/AST Associate Administrator George Nield (AIAA Public Service Award).
NASA is holding two press conferences this week — on the GRACE-FO mission (Monday) and the Kilopower project (Wednesday) — but the big event is Saturday’s launch of its next mission to Mars (which has a pre-launch briefing on Thursday). The InSight lander will explore the interior of Mars using instruments that can study the planet’s crust, mantle and core. It is the first mission to Mars to be launched from the West Coast (Vandenberg Air Force Base) instead of Cape Canaveral. InSight was supposed to launch two years ago, but a problem with one of the instruments could not be remedied in time to make the once-every-26-months launch window to Mars.
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.
Monday, April 30
- Space Tech Symposium at UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
- Space 2.0: U.S. Competitiveness and Space Policy in a New Space Era (Hudson Institute), 1201 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 12:00-3:00 pm ET
- NASA Briefing on GRACE-FO mission, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 1:00 pm ET (webcast)
- United States-India Space Cooperation Roundtable (SWF), U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1615 H St., NW, Washington, DC, 3:00-7:00 pm ET
Monday-Thursday, April 30-May 3, 2018
- National Academies ASEB and SSB meetings, Keck Center, 500 5th St. NW, Washington, DC
- April 30: ASEB
- May 1: ASEB and SSB joint meeting
- May 2-3: SSB
Tuesday, May 1
- NASA Industry Day for Commercialization of Low Earth Orbit, Johnson Space Center, TX
Wednesday, May 2
- NASA News Conference on Kilopower Project, Glenn Research Center, 9:15 am ET (webcast)
- Departure of SpX-14 Dragon from ISS, NASA TV coverage begins 10:00 am ET
- AIAA Spotlight Gala Awards Dinner, Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, DC, 6:30 pm ET
Thursday, May 3
- InSight Pre-Launch Briefing Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, 4:00 pm ET (1:00 pm Pacific), webcast
Saturday, May 5
- Launch of InSight Mission to Mars, Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, 7:05 am ET (4:05 am Pacific Time), NASA TV coverage begins 6:30 am ET
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