The Government Accountability Office wants NASA to document and communicate a mass management plan for the Gateway lunar space station before the next program review in September. The first two Gateway segments are scheduled to launch together in 2027, but their combined mass exceeds allowed limits. GAO also illuminates concerns about the schedule and whether Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element will be capable of controlling the small space station when more massive vehicles are docked.

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In its quarterly earnings report today, Boeing acknowledged that delays in the Starliner program have cost it another $125 million. The company has had to spend more than $1 billion of its own money under a fixed-price contract with the government to develop the Starliner capsule to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The Crew Flight Test currently underway is a step towards certifying Starliner for operational flights, but technical challenges will delay the first post-certification mission at least until August 2025.

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Boeing and NASA put the Starliner spacecraft through its paces this weekend, successfully testing the thrusters and confirming the helium leaks are stable. But in a nod to the amount of work that lies ahead before NASA certifies Starliner for operational launches, the agency said a SpaceX Crew Dragon will be used for the February 2025 space station crew exchange, not Starliner-1.

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Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com from July 22-28, 2024 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 July 28-August 3, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is in recess until September 9 except for pro forma sessions.

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SpaceX’s launch of another set of Starlink satellites early this morning would be just another routine event except that it took place only two weeks after a Falcon 9 rocket failure. Companies typically take many months to analyze the cause of a failure and find and implement a fix. For SpaceX, the record-breaking number of launches they conduct and massive amounts of data they collect each time made it comparatively straightforward.

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NASA and Boeing provided an update on the Starliner Crew Flight Test today. They are still conducting tests to determine why the Starliner commercial crew capsule experienced thruster failures and helium leaks on its way to the International Space Station last month. Starliner’s crew, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, remain aboard the ISS. A date for their return still is not set.

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The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY2025 Commerce-Justice-Science bill today that includes funding for NASA. The agency would get $25.43 billion, a roughly $50 million increase above the $25.38 billion request. By contrast, their House counterparts approved $25.18 billion, $200 million less than the request. The Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon would get $30 million of that increase in the Senate bill.

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If Congress adopts NASA’s FY2025 astrophysics budget request, the Chandra X-ray telescope cannot continue to operate according to an independent review. Chandra advocates have been raising the alarm since the request was submitted in March and the Operating Paradigm Change Review led by two renowned astrophysicists confirms those fears. NASA is seeking cost savings by reducing operations of both Chandra and Hubble, two of its oldest space telescopes, but Chandra would be hit the hardest.

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NASA’s VIPER lunar rover completed acoustic testing today just a week after NASA announced its intent to terminate the mission because of cost growth. Congress will have the last word on VIPER’s fate and NASA is awaiting a response. In the meantime, testing continues to get the spacecraft ready for launch next year with many in the lunar science community hoping Congress tells NASA to change its mind.

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