The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved a new NASA authorization bill today. Among its many provisions, the bill supports recent changes to the Artemis program, directs NASA to build a Moon base, extends operations of the International Space Station until 2032 while requiring NASA to move forward with commercial space stations to replace it, and strongly supports NASA’s science, technology, and aeronautics programs.

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Four weeks after announcing that he wants to restore NASA’s core competencies, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said today that includes recruiting “technical talent” from industry to join the agency for roughly 2-year terms. NASA and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) are working together to bring this “NASA Force” idea to fruition.

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Russia has completed repairs to Site 31, the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome used for sending crews and cargo to the International Space Station. A structure that supports the launch platform collapsed immediately following the launch of the most recent Soyuz crew in November. Despite what appeared to be significant damage, Roscosmos successfully worked to get it ready for the next Progress cargo mission scheduled to launch on March 22.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 1-7, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is in session Tuesday-Thursday.

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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed a reconfigured plan for the Artemis program today that increases the cadence of launches and adds an earth-orbit test flight before a lunar surface return. Calling it a “course correction,” officials said the previous plan was not a path to success. The goal of landing on the Moon in 2028 while President Trump is in office remains and NASA is even preserving the possibility of two landings that year.

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As NASA prepares to launch the Artemis II crew around the Moon in the very near future, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is raising warning flags about the next flight in the queue, Artemis III. That’s the mission designed to land astronauts on the surface of the Moon for the first time since 1972, but ASAP warns the current plan is too risky. NASA will hold a press conference tomorrow morning, February 27, to discuss “Next Steps for the Artemis Campaign” that presumably will focus not only on the upcoming launch of Artemis II, but ASAP’s report as well.

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One week after promising leadership changes stemming from the 2024 Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test incident, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has replaced the heads of the Space Operations Mission Directorate and the Commercial Crew Program. Ken Bowersox is retiring and Steve Stich is moving to another position at the agency. Their deputies will take over for now. An internal review of NASA’s decision-making process and findings from a separate NASA advisory panel criticize how decisions were made even though in the end the two CFT crew members, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, made a safe return on a different spacecraft.

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In a nearly two-hour State of the Union address Tuesday evening, President Trump briefly mentioned launching humans “into the stars” as part of a review of America’s history, but not the Artemis program specifically. The Artemis II crew and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman were invited guests, but not singled out. …

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of February 22-28, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is scheduled to be in session all week; the House Monday-Wednesday.

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Just one day after excitedly sharing the successful results of the second Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal, NASA has a different message this morning. A problem with helium flow to the Space Launch System’s upper stage overnight means they have to roll the SLS back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs. NASA’s initial announcement this morning left room for the possibility that the repairs might take place at the pad, but NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman soon clarified that SLS must return to the VAB and launching in March no longer is an option.

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