An Independent Review Board assessing the status of the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission has concluded that although the mission has tremendous scientific value, it is poorly managed and designed with unrealistic budget and schedule expectations. The program has a “near zero” probability of meeting the existing launch readiness dates and would cost $8-9.6 billion, requiring more than $1 billion per year for at least three years beginning in FY2025. On the good news front, the IRB suggests alternatives that would still achieve the end result, but later in the 2030s and they may cost more.

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The FAA is proposing a new rule requiring commercial space companies to dispose of their rocket upper stages to limit the creation of more space debris. Five disposal methods are allowed: a controlled or uncontrolled deorbit within certain time limits, putting the stage into a less congested orbit or sending it into an Earth-escape orbit, or retrieving it. A 90-day public comment period will begin once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of September 17-24, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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A new Russian-American crew has arrived on the International Space Station as part of a rather unusual crew rotation. The three people aboard Soyuz MS-24 were supposed to launch six months ago on Soyuz MS-23, but that spacecraft had to be launched empty because of a technical problem with Soyuz MS-22 already docked at ISS. They are finally aboard, but unlike most crews that arrive and leave together, this time the American will return as usual after six months, but the two Russians will stay for a year. …

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Germany became the 29th country to sign the U.S.-led Artemis Accords today. The Accords set non-binding governance principles for operations on the Moon. The heads of NASA and Germany’s space agency heralded the event as furthering international space cooperation and opening opportunities for industry as well as science.

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NASA released the report of its year-long analysis of unclassified data about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs, today. Government interest in UAPs has skyrocketed in recent years after reports by a several military pilots of sightings they cannot explain. The government is less concerned about extraterrestrial aliens than adversaries fielding advanced technologies that might threaten national defense. NASA wants to “shift from sensationalism to science” and appointed a director to continue NASA’s open and transparent UAP research. …

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Grand plans for long-term human exploration of space require extensive research into how humans adapt to the space environment and that means increased funding for biological and physical sciences research at NASA. That is the bottom line of a new Decadal Survey released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today recommending priorities for the next 10 years of biological and physical research. The “severely underfunded” program needs a tenfold infusion of money if national goals are to be met and U.S. leadership maintained.

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Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com last week, September 4-10, 2023, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of September 10-16, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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