Two new crew members for the International Space Station lifted off this afternoon in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom beginning NASA’s Crew-9 mission. ISS crew rotation missions are relatively routine, but this one is a bit different. Not only is it the first crewed launch from SpaceX’s complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but only two instead of four people are onboard. The other two original members of Crew-9 gave up their seats so they could be used by two astronauts already on the ISS who need a ride home.

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NASA’s Office of Inspector General gives NASA pretty good marks for how it is managing the risks of continued operation of the aging International Space Station, but is worried about the current lack of redundancy in crew and cargo transportation systems. Delays in Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule and Northrop Grumman’s need to build a new rocket to launch its Cygnus cargo spacecraft means that SpaceX has the only U.S. rocket capable of delivering people and supplies right now. The OIG also is concerned about several other issues including the air leak in a Russian module and transition planning for the post-ISS era.

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The House and Senate have passed a Continuing Resolution to keep the government operating for another three months. They quickly headed out of town, earlier than scheduled, both to beat the arrival of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern United States and to continue campaigning for the November elections. When they return in mid-November, their to-do list will look much the same as it did a month ago.

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FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker and SpaceX founder and chief engineer Elon Musk are at odds over fines the FAA wants to impose because SpaceX allegedly did not adhere to regulatory requirements and a two-month delay in approving the fifth test flight of the company’s new Starship rocket.  Whitaker explained the FAA’s position at a congressional hearing yesterday and SpaceX quickly asserted that “every statement he made was incorrect.”

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The House passed two bipartisan NASA bills today. The 2024 NASA Authorization Act reaffirms support for NASA’s broad portfolio of programs in human spaceflight, science, aeronautics, and technology. The Accessing Satellite Data to Enable New Discoveries Act or ASCEND Act codifies a NASA program to acquire commercial satellite imagery. The next step is the Senate, which has not introduced similar bills yet.

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Two Russian cosmonauts, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, returned from the International Space Station this morning after setting a new ISS record of 374 days. Their return to Earth on Soyuz MS-25 included NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson who spent 184 days in space on this, her third space mission. Soyuz MS-25 commander Kononenko now holds the world record for total cumulative time in space — 1,111 days over five flights.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of September 22-28, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s schedule for floor action next week includes consideration of the 2024 NASA Authorization Act.  The bipartisan bill cleared the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee in July. Ensuring U.S. space leadership, facilitating the growth of the U.S. commercial space sector, and reaffirming support for NASA’s human spaceflight, science, aeronautics, and technology activities are the major themes.  [UPDATE: The House passed the bill on September 23, 2024.]

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The Senate Armed Services Committee released a collection of 93 amendments to the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act today. The NDAA is considered one of a very few “must pass” bills for Congress to complete before the 118th Congress ends, making it an attractive legislative vehicle for a wide range of issues. In this case, it extends the deadlines for FAA regulations that would expire in January and September 2025 including the “learning period” for commercial human spaceflight and third-party indemnification for commercial space launches.

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NASA is still expecting to launch the Europa Clipper probe on October 10 at the beginning of its multi-week launch window, but if necessary it could launch as late as November 6.  That’s several days beyond the original window thanks to SpaceX finding ways to get more performance out of the Falcon Heavy rocket and not needing to rely on ground stations to track the rocket’s trajectory.

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