Category: Commercial

What’s Happening in Space Policy June 18-24, 2017

What’s Happening in Space Policy June 18-24, 2017

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of June 18-24, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the A1:T27

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) will begin marking up the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week.  Most military space programs are under the jurisdiction of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.  Its markup is on Thursday morning.  Across Capitol Hill, Senate defense appropriators will begin drilling down into the budget requests from the three services.  They heard from Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford last week about the broad scope of funding issues facing DOD.  This Wednesday they will hear from Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein specifically about Air Force needs.  Most military space programs are in the Air Force budget and Wilson is the Principal DOD Space Advisor.  Separately, Dunford will give a luncheon address at the National Press Club tomorrow (Monday) and Gen. John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, will talk about space, nuclear and missile defense modernization Tuesday morning as part of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute space breakfast series (one must register in advance to attend).

On the space science front, NASA will hold a briefing tomorrow (Monday) at NASA’s Ames Research Center on recent discoveries from the exoplanet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope.  The briefing is in conjunction with the fourth Kepler Science Conference taking place there all week.  

Back here in Washington, NASA is sponsoring back-to-back briefings on Wednesday about the upcoming solar eclipse.  On August 21, for the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will pass over the United States.  The total eclipse will be visible in 14 states from Oregon to South Carolina.  The rest of North America and parts of South America, Africa and Europe will see a partial eclipse. It is such a rare event that huge traffic jams and other disruptions are expected and it is vitally important that people wear special “eclipse glasses” to look at the sun.  NOT sunglasses.  You need eclipse glasses.  They are inexpensive and readily available from many retailers as a quick look on Amazon.com will reveal.  NASA has arranged these briefings two months before the eclipse so people have plenty of time to get prepared.  The first Wednesday briefing is on logistics and the second is on the science of solar eclipses.  They will take place at the Newseum in Washington and broadcast on NASA TV.

The space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold a third hearing on commercial space issues on Wednesday (unfortunately at the same time as the NASA eclipse briefings as well as a very interesting CSIS seminar on “Small Satellites, Big Missions”).  Subcommittee chairman Ted Cruz is holding a series of hearings under the rubric “Reopening the American Frontier.”  The first two were on April 26 and May 23.  This one is focusing on partnerships between the government and the private sector.  Bob Cabana, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), is the lone government witness.  He has been leading the conversion of KSC from a NASA center to a multi-user spaceport populated almost as much by other government agencies and private sector companies as by NASA itself.  Joining him at the witness table will be Gwynne Shotwell from SpaceX (which leases KSC’s iconic Launch Complex 39A from NASA), Jeff Manber from Nanoracks (which arranges to send cubesats to the International Space Station for deployment into orbit), Moriba Jah from the University of Texas at Austin (an expert on space situational awareness), and Tim Ellis from Relativity (a company whose website says it is “reimagining the way orbital rockets are built and flown”).

This is also Paris Air Show week with the venerable event taking place as usual at Le Bourget outside Paris, France.

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 Events of Interest list.

Sunday, June 18

Monday, June 19

Monday-Friday, June 19-23

Monday-Sunday, June 19-25

Tuesday, June 20

Tuesday-Thursday, June 20-22

Wednesday, June 21

Thursday, June 22

Thursday-Friday, June 22-23

What’s Happening in Space Policy June 11-16, 2017

What’s Happening in Space Policy June 11-16, 2017

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of June 11-16, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

This week it’s DOD’s turn to talk to authorizers and appropriators about the FY2018 budget request. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford are the witnesses at each of the four hearings on successive days beginning tomorrow (Monday).  It’s not clear whether military space programs will come up to any great extent, but the hearings should provide some sense of where space activities sit in DOD priorities. Mattis and Dunford testify to the House Armed Services Committee tomorrow, Senate Armed Services on Tuesday, Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on Wednesday, and House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on Thursday.

On Monday, Orbital ATK and NASA will hold a briefing at Wallops Island, VA, home to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), the launch site for Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket.  The briefing will provide an update on the next Orbital ATK cargo mission on a Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), which will launch on Antares from MARS at Wallops. The launch is currently expected in September.  Orbital ATK has launched Cygnus on both Antares from Wallops and United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral.  At first, Orbital ATK used ULA’s Atlas V while it was getting Antares back to flight after an October 2014 failure.  Antares returned to service in October 2016, but the company’s most recent Cygnus mission used the Atlas V again reportedly at NASA’s request.  Atlas V can lift more mass than Antares.

Orbital ATK officials have said they are happy to use either rocket depending on the customer’s requirements, but with this briefing, clearly are trying to highlight Antares and the MARS facility, which is located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, but owned and operated by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight  Authority (“Virginia Space”).  NASA Wallops Director Bill Wrobel and Virginia Space Executive Director Dale Nash will join Orbital ATK’s Frank Culbertson and Kurt Eberly for the briefing, which will be livestreamed.  The briefing will take place one day after the most recent Cygnus mission ended.  After about six weeks attached to ISS and one week in independent flight, the S.S. John Glenn fired its engines for a last time today and descended into the atmosphere and disintegrated, as intended. Only one of the ISS cargo resupply spacecraft is designed to survive reentry, SpaceX’s Dragon.

SpaceX’s most recent Dragon arrived at the ISS last Monday and Russia will launch its next Progress cargo resupply mission this Wednesday (with docking on Friday if all goes well).  All these cargo spacecraft comings and goings illustrate the challenges of sending people on lengthy trips beyond low Earth orbit.  Tough enough to provide all the needed supplies and equipment when they are close to home.  It’s going to take a lot of technology development for life support and other systems, and many logistics flights, to support such missions.

NASA’s Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) is meeting Monday-Wednesday at Goddard Space Flight Center.  Michele Gates is on the agenda on Tuesday for 15 minutes to talk about the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), which consumed a lot of SBAG’s attention for the past couple of years.  Presumably her task at this point is just to inform SBAG that the Trump Administration has terminated ARM, but two aspects of it — high power solar electric propulsion development and asteroid hunting — will continue nonetheless.  NASA’s Planetary Science Division Director Jim Green and Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson are also on the agenda along with many other presentations that sound quite interesting, including two by representatives of asteroid mining companies.  The meeting is available remotely through Adobe Connect.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others that we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Monday, June 12

Monday-Wednesday, June 12-14

Monday-Friday, June 12-16 (continued from last week)

Tuesday, June 13

Wednesday, June 14

Thursday, June 15

Friday, June 16

New Commercial Space Bill Clears House Committee

New Commercial Space Bill Clears House Committee

The House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee approved the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act of 2017 (H.R. 2809) by voice vote today.  Although the bill has bipartisan sponsorship, the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), offered a substitute version of the bill as an amendment, but later withdrew it acknowledging that there were not enough votes for it to pass.  Three other amendments were adopted by voice vote.

The three main sponsors/co-sponsors of the bill are Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House SS&T committee; Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), chairman of the space subcommittee; and Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK).  Joining them as co-sponsors are Republicans Dana Rohrabacher (CA), Randy Hultgren (IL), Randy Weber (TX), and Clay Higgins (LA) and Democrats Ed Perlmutter (CO) and Derek Kilmer (WA).  

Twenty  companies and industry associations submitted letters of support for all or portions of the legislation, including the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the Satellite Industry Association.  Most of the letters are posted on the committee’s website.

The committee circulated a draft of the bill to stakeholders several weeks ago.  Smith said the committee received input from companies, federal agencies, the Administration, and committee colleagues and incorporated “many if not most” of the recommended changes.

Smith characterized the bill as declaring that “America is ‘open for business’ in space.”  The bill “establishes a legal and policy environment intended to unleash American free enterprise and business, assure conformity with Outer Space Treaty obligations, and ensure that the United States will lead the world in commercial space activities throughout the 21st Century.”


House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) at markup of H.R. 2809, June 8, 2017.  Screengrab.

The final bill is similar to the draft in that it designates the Department of Commerce (DOC) as the “one-stop shop” in the government for companies that want to engage in commercial space activities.  The Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) would continue to facilitate, promote and regulate commercial launch and reentry, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would continue to assign radio spectrum to commercial users, but everything else would go through DOC’s Office of Space Commerce (OSC).  OSC currently is part of NOAA.  It would be combined with NOAA’s Office of Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs and the merged office elevated to a higher level in the DOC.  The head of the office would be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce.  The two offices have a combined budget of $1.4 million for FY2017.  The bill would authorize $5 million for FY2018.

Among the changes from the draft that was circulated several weeks ago are the following:

  • Requires the Secretary of Commerce to issue “certifications” instead of “registrations” for U.S. entities to operate space objects. The distinction between a registration and a certification is not clarified, but the term is changed throughout the legislation. The requirement for DOC to establish a registry of objects of U.S. entities that are authorized and supervised to operate in outer space is eliminated.
  • Strengthens a requirement for the Secretary of Commerce to consult with other agencies in deciding whether to grant certifications (“shall, as the Secretary considers necessary” instead of  “may, as the Secretary considers necessary”)
  • Extends the time period by which the Secretary must decide to grant or reject a certification from 60 days to 90 days.

Until last fall, it appeared as though there was consensus in government and industry that responsibility for regulating new commercial space activities would be assigned to FAA/AST, which already regulates launch and reentry.  Bridenstine and George Nield, the head of FAA/AST, advocated expanding the office’s role to include in-space activities and in a report required by the 2015 Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA), the Obama Administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) essentially recommended that course of action.  Bridenstine included that approach in a bill he introduced last year, the American Space Renaissance Act.

However, last October, Babin called for a “regulatory rethink” for commercial space regulation, which led to a hearing earlier this year on a “permissionless” approach to achieving the goal of ensuring that the United States fulfills its obligations under the Outer Space Treaty without stifling innovation.  The issues are complex and were also debated at a Senate hearing last month.

While there is general agreement that whatever regulation should have a light touch — “maximum certainty with minimal regulation” — debate continues over what federal agency should be in charge of whatever regulation there is.   This bill assigns it to DOC, but there are those who continue to view FAA/AST as the appropriate agency.

Johnson’s substitute amendment was to assign it to FAA/AST.  She argued that FAA/AST already has the organization in place to take on these additional duties rather than starting from scratch at DOC.  She said her amendment “builds on the highly successful FAA space launch licensing process and provides a clean, straightforward path for the certification of these innovative space systems.”  However, she withdrew the amendment saying “I can count, and realize that this amendment has very little chance of being adopted.”  She expressed hope that Democrats and Republicans can work together to reach consensus as the bill moves forward.


House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Ranking Member Eddie Bernie Johnson (D-TX) at markup of H.R. 2809, June 8, 2017.  Screengrab.

Smith, however, said he was “more than disappointed” that she had proposed the amendment and defended the process by which the bill was drafted and made available for comment, including making changes requested by Democratic members.  He said her amendment would “strangle an industry at its early stages” and have other negative consequences.

Bridenstine clearly changed his views from last year and now supports giving this authority to DOC instead of FAA/AST.  He did, however, offer an amendment today requesting that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a study of the pros and cons of elevating AST out of the FAA and into the Secretary of Transportation’s office, where it originally was located, to give it added visibility and resources. The amendment was adopted.  (He wrote a letter to GAO with the same request last month.)

A Perlmutter amendment was also adopted that added a task to be undertaken by a Private Space Activity Advisory Committee created in the bill.  The committee now also would be required to identify challenges the U.S. private sector is experiencing with “access to adequate, predictable, and reliable radio frequency spectrum.”

The committee’s verbatim summary of the bill’s key provisions as published in its press release is as follows:

  • Create a single authority for U.S. authorization and supervision of nongovernmental space activities located at the Department of Commerce Office of Space Commerce
  • Establish a transparent certification process in the least burdensome manner possible
  • Provide greater certainty to assure nongovernmental space activities conform to the United States’ Outer Space Treaty obligations
  • Address concerns that certified activities may pose a safety risk to existing federal government space systems
  • Reform the space-based remote sensing regulatory process
  • Preserve ability to condition remote sensing operations to protect national security
  • Enhance national security by ensuring insight into operations and capabilities by creating a competitive environment that discourages offshoring
New Astronauts, But No News from VP Pence

New Astronauts, But No News from VP Pence

Vice President Mike Pence attended a NASA event at Johnson Space Center (JSC) today introducing the 12 new astronaut candidates NASA selected from a pool of approximately 18,300 applicants.  His remarks evoked patriotic images of American leadership in space, but provided no news about the reestablishment of a White House National Space Council, the nomination of a NASA Administrator, or detaiis of what the Trump Administration plans for NASA.

Pence joined Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot and JSC Director Ellen Ochoa at the event, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. Lamar Smith and Rep. Brian Babin.  Cruz, Smith and Babin are all members of the Texas congressional delegation.  Cruz chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation space subcommittee.  Smith chairs the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and Babin chairs its space subcommittee (he also represents the congressional district that includes JSC).   Texas Governor Greg Abbott also was there along with other local Texas officials.

The spotlight was on the new astronaut candidates — they will become astronauts, available for assignment to missions, after two years of training — but Pence’s participation raised expectations of an announcement of some sort at the national level.   Pence said in March during the Oval Office signing ceremony for the NASA Transition Authorization Act that President Trump would reactivate the White House National Space Council “in very short order” and he (Pence) would chair it.  Two months later, the space policy community continues to wait.   Today, Pence said only that it would happen “soon.” He said nothing about a NASA Administrator nominee.

Pence spoke in general terms about American leadership in space and promised that the Trump Administration would provide the resources for NASA “to push the boundaries of human knowledge and advance American leadership to the boundless frontiers of space.”   America “will lead in space once again and the world will marvel.”   The video of Pence’s speech is posted on the White House YouTube channel.


Vice President Mike Pence (center) with NASA’s 12 new astronaut candidates, Johnson Space Center, TX, June 7, 2017.  Photo credit:  NASA

The Trump Administration’s FY2018 budget request is an almost 3 percent cut from FY2017, however.  The request is $19.092 billion not only for FY2018, but each year through FY2022 with no adjustment even for inflation.  Proposed funding for the systems needed to send humans beyond low Earth orbit — the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion — is less than what Congress appropriated for FY2017 even though the programs are still on the upslope of their development funding curves.

No bold statements about reaching Mars at any particular point in time were made.  In fact, Pence told the 12 NASA astronaut newcomers that they “may” return to the Moon or travel to Mars, not that they “will.”  Even NASA’s press release omitted any mention of specific destinations beyond low Earth orbit.  After two years of training the astronaut candidates could be assigned “to any of a variety of missions” including research on the International Space Station, flying on the SpaceX or Boeing commercial crew vehicles, or “departing for deep space missions on NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.”  The Obama Administration’s goal was to send humans to orbit Mars in the 2030s.

Advocates of restoring the lunar surface to U.S. human exploration plans nevertheless might be cheered by Pence’s mention of that possibility.  NASA currently has no plans to return humans to the surface of the Moon, only to lunar orbit as a steppingstone to Mars, although it hopes that it might be able to join international and commercial partners that have their own lunar surface plans.

Commercial space enthusiasts also were probably pleased by Pence’s assertion that with “increased collaboration with commercial space industries we can seize opportunities that will benefit” the country for years to come.

The day really belonged to the new astronaut candidates and their aspirations, not budget realities or policy arguments. 


NASA’s 2017 class of astronaut candidates.  Photo credit:  NASA

  • Lt. Kayla Barron, U.S Navy, 29, submarine warfare officer, flag aide to the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy
  • Zena Cardman, 29, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow working on doctorate at the Pennsylvania State University, marine sciences
  • Lt. Col. Raja Chari, U.S. Air Force, 39, commander, 461st Flight Test Squadron, director F-35 Integrated Test Force, Edwards AFB, CA
  • Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Dominick, U.S. Navy, 35, department head, Strike Fighter Squadron 115, USS Ronald Reagan
  • Bob Hines, 42, NASA research pilot, Johnson Space Center
  • Warren “Woody” Hoburg, 31, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, MIT
  • Lt. Jonny Kim, U.S. Navy, 33, resident physician in emergency medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Robb Kulin, 33, leads the Launch Chief Engineering Group, SpaceX
  • Maj. Jasmin Moghbeli, U.S. Marine Corps, 33, H-1 helicopter test pilot, quality assurance and avionics officer for Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1, Yuma, AZ
  • Loral O’Hara, 34, research engineer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
  • Maj. Francisco “Frank” Rubio, U.S. Army, 41, surgeon, 3rd Battalion, Army 10th Special Forces Group, Fort Carson, CO
  • Jessica Watkins, 29, postdoctoral fellow, California Institute of Technology where she collaborates on the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover
Wilson: AF Requesting 20 Percent Increase for Space, SpaceX to Launch Next X-37B

Wilson: AF Requesting 20 Percent Increase for Space, SpaceX to Launch Next X-37B

Secretary of the Air Force (SecAF) Heather Wilson told a Senate committee today that the service is requesting a 20 percent increase for its space programs in FY2018.  She also revealed that SpaceX will launch the next X-37B mission in August, the first time one of the uncrewed spaceplanes will launch on a vehicle other than a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V.   She and Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein further reinforced the Air Force paradigm that space no longer is a benign environment, but a warfighting domain.

Wilson was sworn in as SecAF on May 16 and testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) along with three other top Air Force officials (including Goldfein) the next day about military space programs.  

Today’s annual Air Force posture hearing was much broader and encompassed all Air Force activities. The preponderance of the hearing focused on aircraft and personnel.  In her opening statement, however, Wilson chose space as one of her three main themes.  The others were readiness and modernization.  Regarding the space portion of the service’s portfolio, she said the FY2018 budget request includes a 20 percent increase for space, but did not go into details.

During an exchange with Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) over whether U.S. space capabilities are sufficiently resilient and responsive, both praised the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office and its rapid acquisition authorities.  ORS is headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, which Heinrich represents in the Senate and Wilson represented in the House from 1998-2009.  As the discussion continued, Heinrich also urged Wilson to consider using small launch vehicles from companies like Virgin Galactic, Vulcan Aerospace and Orbital ATK to ensure more distributed, responsive and flexible access to space.

In her reply, Wilson held up a model of the X-37B spaceplane and said it “will be going up again, it’s a reusable vehicle, and it will be going up again on top of a SpaceX launcher in August.”  


Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson shows model of X-37B spacecraft at Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, June 6, 2017.  Screengrab from committee webcast.

She added that Goldfein had a model of a cubesat with him and overall spacecraft are “getting smaller, able to be put on multiple different platforms, and there’s some very exciting things happening in commercial space that bring the opportunity for assured access to space at a very competitive price.”

The Air Force has two Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles (OTVs), each of which has been launched two times.  What they do in space is highly classified, but they remain on orbit for very long periods of time.  They look like miniature space shuttle orbiters.  The most recent flight ended last month after 718 days in space, landing at Kennedy Space Center for the first time.  KSC was the launch site for all of NASA’s space shuttle missions and almost all of them landed there as well.  The Air Force is now using some of the former shuttle facilities for the X-37B, including the runway and a processing facility. The previous X-37B launches were on Atlas V rockets from Cape Canaveral, FL with landings at Vandenberg AFB, CA.

The fact that the Air Force chose SpaceX instead of ULA for the next X-37B launch does not appear to have been publicly disclosed until now.

Goldfein referred to the close cooperation between the Air Force and NASA in space, thanking Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his work on the “NASA strategic plan,” a probable reference to the NASA Transition Authorization Act recently signed into law.  Cruz chairs the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee that oversees NASA.

Cruz asked if the 20 percent increase in Air Force space funding, which he said would bring the total to $7.7 billion, is sufficient. 

Wilson said that some of the items on the Air Force’s “unfunded requirements list” that was sent to Congress are space-related, including $200 million for “space defense”.   She concluded that “I think there’s a lot of progress [with the requested increase] but there’s no question there’s much more to be done.”

Goldfein ended the hearing by reiterating the Air Force’s view that space is no longer a benign environment, but a “domain from which we have to be prepared to fight and win and … maintain space superiority, if war extends into space or starts in space.  … I align with General John Hyten [Commander of STRATCOM] who has said there’s no such thing as war in space, there’s just war.  But if it extends into space, we’ve got to be ready.”

Memorial Fund Established for Matt Isakowitz

Memorial Fund Established for Matt Isakowitz

The Future Space Leaders Foundation has established a fund in honor of Matthew Isakowitz, who died last week at the age of 29.  The organization is still filling in the details, but plans to use donations to further his “legacy in the field of human space exploration.”

Though still in the early years of his career, Matt was already a well known member of the space policy community — a champion especially for commercial space.  More than 100 tributes posted on a guest book at Legacy.com illustrate the respect and affection held for him by his friends and colleagues. 

Many of the more veteran members of the space policy community first came to know Matt as the son of Steve Isakowitz, who held a number of positions in the government and private sector (including NASA Comptroller when Sean O’Keefe was Administrator and President of Virgin Galactic) before becoming President and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation last year. Steve is himself a highly admired member of the community, but Matt made his own place in the profession.


Matt Isakowitz (center).   Photo provided by Clay Mowry (used with permission)

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton, with a master’s degree in international science and technology policy from George Washington University, Matt worked at Astranis, Planetary Resources, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Space Adventures, SpaceX, and the XPRIZE Foundation.

The Future Space Leaders Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt organization “dedicated to the career development of young space and satellite industry professionals.”  A link to donate to the fund is on its website.

What's Happening in Space Policy June 4-10, 2017

What's Happening in Space Policy June 4-10, 2017

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of June 4-10, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate will be in session this week.

During the Week

Better late than never?  The Trump Administration finally sent its FY2018 budget proposal to Congress on May 23.  As they say, the President proposes and Congress disposes.  This week Congress gets about its job in earnest with many, many hearings on various aspects of the budget request.  It is just a request. Only Congress decides how to spend the nation’s money.   The reaction to the request in the halls of Congress is much like what was heard during the Obama Administration — dead on arrival.  Still, they had to wait until the request was in hand to get busy coming up with their own plan.  Describing how difficult that’s going to be would make this missive far too long, especially since the budget debate may well get entangled in the debate over increasing the debt limit.  Even though Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, there are many intraparty divisions, never mind trying to reach a deal that at least some Democrats can support.

For this week, the focus is on information gathering for both appropriations and authorizations (not sure of the difference — see our What’s a Markup? Fact Sheet).   From a space policy perspective, the hearings to watch are NASA budget (two on Thursday — the House SS&T space subcommittee in the morning; House Appropriations CJS subcommittee in the afternoon), FAA reauthorization, including FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (Wednesday, Senate Commerce Committee; Thursday, House T&I Committee), Air Force posture hearing (Tuesday, Senate Armed Services); and Department of Commerce budget, which includes NOAA (Thursday, Senate Appropriations CJS subcommittee).

The House SS&T Committee also has scheduled a markup of the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act of 2017 on Thursday at 1:30 pm ET.  A draft bill has been circulating for several weeks. Although it has not been formally introduced yet, the committee posted the current draft text that the committee will consider that day.

Off the Hill this week, the annual GEOINT conference begins today in San Antonio and runs through Wednesday.  The theme this year is Advancing Capabilities to Meet Emerging Threats.

The American Bar Association is holding its annual space law symposium in Washington, DC (note the location changed and is now at the University Club) on Thursday.   It’s got a GREAT line up of speakers.  Most unfortunately, it turns out to be competing with four hearings and one markup.  Not to mention a Space Transportation Association luncheon with Bob Cabana, former astronaut and Director of Kennedy Space Center.

Speaking of astronauts, amidst all this NASA will announce the members of its new astronaut class at Johnson Space Center on Wednesday.  Vice President Mike Pence will be in attendance.  He said in March during the signing ceremony for the 2017 NASA Transition Authorization Act that President Trump will reestablish the National Space Council and he (Pence) will lead it.  Everyone has been waiting for further news since then – perhaps he’ll have more to say on Wednesday.

Lots of other really interesting things going on in D.C. and the rest of the world as well including Beijing (GLEX 2017); Vienna, Austria (UNCOPUOS); and Kerkrade, The Netherlands (Overview Symposium).

The list of everything we know about as of Sunday morning is shown below.  Check back throughout the week to see others that we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Sunday, June 4 (continued from June 3)

Sunday-Wednesday, June 4-7

Monday, June 5

Tuesday, June 6

Tuesday-Thursday, June 6-8

Wednesday, June 7

Wednesday, June 7 – Friday, June 16

Thursday, June 8

Friday, June 9

  • The Space Mission Force (AFA Mitchell Institute), Capitol Hill Club, 300 1st St., SE, Washington, DC, 8:00 am ET  pre-registration REQUIRED

Friday-Saturday, June 9-10

NASA, SpaceX Ready for Launch of First Second-Hand Dragon – UPDATE 2

NASA, SpaceX Ready for Launch of First Second-Hand Dragon – UPDATE 2

NASA and SpaceX are getting ready for tomorrow’s (June 1) launch of the SpaceX-11 (SpX-11) cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS).  The Dragon spacecraft will be packed full of supplies and equipment for the ISS crew as usual, but what makes this mission unique is that this Dragon has been to ISS before.  Originally launched in 2014, SpaceX had to change out some of the components, but most of it took this ride on SpaceX-4. [UPDATE: The launch was successful on June 3, 2017, a 2-day delay after weather scrubbed the June 1 attempt.  Dragon’s arrival at the ISS is scheduled for June 5.  First stage landing at Landing Zone 1 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station also was successful.]

During a press conference today, ISS program manager Kirk Shireman was asked if NASA got a discount for agreeing to use a second-hand spacecraft.   Shireman explained that NASA has a fixed price contract with SpaceX for these launches so it does not quite work like that.  Over the course of time, both sides need to make changes resulting in what he called “equitable adjustments” for each.  He could not cite precisely what adjustment NASA may have received in this case.


NASA ISS Program Manager Kirk Shireman.  Photo credit:  NASA

Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s Vice President for Mission Assurance, said the spacecraft’s hull and basic structure are unchanged, but some components — including the thrusters, batteries, some avionics, and heat shield — were replaced and the entire vehicle recertified.

Launch is scheduled for 5:55:51 ET from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center. The weather forecast is 70 percent favorable, with a risk of afternoon thunderstorms.  The first stage will land 7 minutes and 27 seconds later at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 on the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). 

It is the fifth attempt to land on land; the other four were successful (Dec. 31, 2015; July 18, 2016; Feb. 18, 2017: and May 1, 2017).   SpaceX has successfully landed another six first stages on drone ships out at sea.  The launch vehicle’s trajectory determines whether the first stage is recovered on land or a drone ship.  The first flight of a reused first stage took place earlier this year.

Reusability is SpaceX’s watchword.  SpaceX founder, CEO and Lead Designer Elon Musk is convinced it is the key to lowering launch costs and enabling bold goals such as the settlement of Mars.

NASA’s space shuttle was the first reusable space transportation system.  It never achieved the cost reductions promised at the beginning of the program because of the high costs of refurbishing the solid rocket boosters and shuttle orbiters after each flight (the large cylindrical External Tank was not reused).  Consequently there are many skeptics about the true cost reductions that can result from reusability, but that has not deterred Musk. 

Asked today about the cost savings for reused Falcon 9s, Koenigsmann demurred, saying one must think about it in the long term.  First the company must recoup the money it spent on developing and testing Falcon 9 and its predecessor, Falcon 1, noting that three of the four Falcon 1 flights and two Falcon 9s failed.  “Maybe the 10th flight, maybe the 20th flight, that’s when you finally could see some money saved.”

SpaceX does offer a price discount to its commercial customers for buying launches on previously flown Falcon 9s.  SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the discount is 10 percent.

NASA selected SpaceX not only for its commercial cargo program to resupply the ISS with equipment, experiments and other necessities, but for its commercial crew program to ferry astronauts back and forth.   Koenigsmann said today that SpaceX is still targeting the first demonstration launch (Demo 1) of its Crew Dragon for the end of this year and the second, Demo 2, for the first quarter of 2018.  Demo 1 will be unoccupied.  Demo 2 will carry two crew members.  Assuming all goes well, operational flights would begin thereafter.

SpaceX leases LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center from NASA.  It has another launch site at CCAFS next door, Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40), which was badly damaged when a Falcon 9 exploded on September 1, 2016 during fueling for a pre-launch test.   Work continues on repairing the launch pad and Koenigsmann said launches will resume in late summer or early fall.  The company will use both LC-39A and SLC-40 as it tries to accelerate its launch rate and work off the backlog caused by the explosion and resulting investigation.

SpX-11 is delivering 4,500 pounds of research supplies and investigations according to Camille Alleyene, Associate Program Scientist for the ISS at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.  Among the cargo are mice and fruitflies.  The rodent experiments are investigating how to reduce bone loss and grow new bone.  The fruitfly research is related to cardiovascular changes.

Dragon’s unpressurized trunk will be filled with three payloads:  the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) for astrophysics research; the Multiple User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES), a platform onto which up to four Earth-sensing instruments can be placed; and the Roll Out Solar Array (ROSA), to test a new type of solar array.  NICER and MUSES will be installed onto the ISS.  ROSA will be rolled out from its storage location in Dragon’s trunk and tested for 7 days.  It then will be retracted into its housing in the trunk.  The trunk is detached from Dragon as it reenters the atmosphere and destroyed by the heat of reentry while the main capsule continues to Earth and splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

In total, Dragon is delivering approximately 6,000 pounds of experiments, equipment and supplies to the ISS. It is due to arrive at the ISS on Sunday, June 4, and remain there for about a month.

If the launch does not take place for any reason tomorrow, the next opportunity is Saturday, June 3, at 5:07 pm ET. The weather forecast for that day is 60 percent “go.”

Congress Looking at Additional Measures to Facilitate Commercial Space

Congress Looking at Additional Measures to Facilitate Commercial Space

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation space subcommittee has held two hearings seeking input on what more the commercial space industry needs legislatively to further its aspirations in exploiting space. The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) became law in 2015 and industry has a list additional provisions they believe could help, and apparent consensus on one that would not – changing the 50-year old Outer Space Treaty (OST).

The titles of both hearings began “Reopening the American Frontier” – evoking the country’s westward expansion in the 1800s. The April 26 hearing focused on reducing regulatory barriers while the May 23 hearing looked specifically at how the OST helps or hurts American companies.

The House Science, Space and Technology (SS&T) Committee held its own hearing on reducing regulatory barriers, which also included debate about the OST, in March. Right now, three key members of the House SS&T committee involved in space policy are circulating draft legislation that would assign most responsibility for regulating commercial space activities to the Department of Commerce (DOC). DOC currently regulates commercial remote sensing satellites – a topic on which House SS&T held a hearing last fall.

The bottom line of all the congressional activity is that there is strong support for U.S. companies that want to engage in commercial space endeavors, especially innovative “New Space” ventures like emplacing habitats in space or on the lunar surface, satellite servicing, and asteroid mining. A consensus seems to exist that the federal government should impose only a light hand of regulation – just enough to satisfy potential investors worried about the regulatory environment such ventures face and to ensure the U.S. fulfills its obligations under the OST. An often used phrase is “maximum certainty with minimal regulation.”

What is lacking is agreement on what the U.S. government is or is not required to do to fulfill its treaty obligations or what government agency should be in charge of whatever regulations are put in place.

The legal debate over what is required by the OST is intricate. Basically there are two schools of thought. One professes that because the treaty is not “self executing,” its provisions apply to the private sector only if Congress takes action to make it so. Otherwise the private sector is free to do whatever it wishes – “permissionless” regulation. The other asserts that treaties must be implemented based on their “plain meaning.” Article VI of the OST states that “[T]he activities of non-governmental entities in outer space … shall require authorization and continuing supervision” by the government that signed the treaty. The plain meaning of that, they argue, is that governments must give permission for a commercial (“non-governmental”) activity to take place and continually supervise it.

While there was no agreement on that score at any of the hearings, the Senate hearing in May focused on a somewhat different question – has the 50-year-old OST been so overtaken by events that the United States should withdraw from or seek to renegotiate it. None of the witnesses supported either of those courses of action preferring to focus on what Congress could and should do to resolve the issues domestically.

The following companies were represented at the April 26 Senate hearing: Bigelow Aerospace (Robert Bigelow), Blue Origin (Rob Meyerson), Made in Space (Andrew Rush), and Galactic Ventures (George Whitesides). Galactic Ventures includes Virgin Orbit, Virgin Galactic, and The Spaceship Company. Companies at the May 23 hearing were: Space Systems Loral (Mike Gold), Planetary Resources (Peter Marquez), and Moon Express (Bob Richards). Also testifying on May 23 were Pamela Melroy, recently retired from DARPA where she led the satellite servicing technology development program, and three space law experts (James Dunstan, Mobius Legal Group; Laura Montgomery, Ground Based Space Matters; and Matthew Schaefer, University of Nebraska College of Law).

Among the measures advocated by one or more of the witnesses at those hearings were the following:

  • Make permanent the FAA’s authority to indemnify commercial space launch companies against certain third party claims, which expires in 2025 (Galactic Ventures);
  • Maintain the “learning period” for commercial human spaceflight through 2023 during which time the government may not impose further regulations (Galactic Ventures);
  • Implement a consistent national legal environment of informed consent requirements for commercial human spaceflight to avoid potentially conflicting state laws and legal interpretations (Galactic Ventures);
  • Streamline the regulation of hybrid launch systems that involve both aircraft and spacecraft (Galactic Ventures);
  • Streamline the licensing of, or implement new regulatory guidelines for, space support vehicles for hire like Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo aircraft (Galactic Ventures);
  • Streamline the process within the FAA – between the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) and the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) – for integrating space traffic into the National Airspace System  (Galactic Ventures);
  • Provide sufficient funding to AST so it can do its work efficiently and effectively (Galactic Ventures);
  • Review and revise government acquisition processes for commercial services to emphasize rapid procurement of innovative capabilities (Galactic Ventures);
  • Refrain from allowing government-funded programs to compete directly with commercially available or emerging services (Galactic Ventures);
  • Maintain the policy of prohibiting commercial use of excess ballistic missiles (Galactic Ventures);
  • Fill vacancies on the Export-Import Bank’s Board of Directors so it can restore normal operations (Galactic Ventures);
  • Continue to review and update the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and modernize the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) to avoide stifling American innovation or business (Galactic Ventures);
  • Make decisions about how to transition from the International Space Station to commercial space stations (Bigelow Aerospace);
  • Align Air Force and FAA requirements for obtaining approval for reusable launches and landings instead of the current duplicative system (Blue Origin);
  • Designate the FAA as the single point of contact with sole authority to regulate commercial launches and reentries regardless of location or type of launch (Blue Origin);
  • Affirm that intellectual property developed in space by companies, whether in a commercial or government facility, will be held by the company that creates it (Made in Space);
  • Clarify how the U.S. government interprets and fulfills its obligations under the Outer Space Treaty, but do not withdraw from it or try to open it for renegotiation (consensus of the witnesses at the May hearing);
  • Establish a predictable, transparent, efficient process that provides certainty for investors and companies seeking to engage in commercial space activities (Moon Express, Space Systems Loral); and
  • Modify the current regulatory system at AST rather than setting up new bureaucracies and processes at another agency (Space Systems Loral).

Subcommittee chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ended the May hearing by saying it is the committee’s intention to move forward with legislation to create a system that incentivizes investment and maximizes the potential of space.

As noted, three House members are circulating their own draft legislation that would assign most regulatory responsibility for commercial space regulations to the Department of Commerce, although it envisions very little regulation at all. The bill has not been introduced yet, but could be at any time.

Strictly speaking, legislation is supposed to follow a process where a bill is introduced and referred to one or more committees that hold hearings followed by markups. The bill is then reported from committee, usually with a written text that explains the committee’s intent. Then the bill is debated on the floor of the House or Senate and passed (or not). In the past several years, however, it has become commonplace for bills to be introduced and go directly to the floor, with any negotiations taking place behind closed doors. Time will tell which path any new commercial space legislation will take.

No Good News for FAA Space Office in FY2018 Request

No Good News for FAA Space Office in FY2018 Request

After successfully fighting to get a budget boost in FY2017, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) is back to the drawing board in the Trump Administration’s FY2018 request.  The office won a $2 million increase to $19.8 million in FY2017, but the FY2018 request is back down to $17.9 billion. The FAA’s budget request also includes funding for a space traffic management pilot project.

Advocates for AST have insisted for years that more resources — money and people — are needed for the office to keep pace with the growth in the commercial space launch sector.  AST regulates, facilitates and promotes that industry.

Mike Gold chairs AST’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), whose members are representatives of commercial space companies.  Gold told SpacePolicyOnline.com in an interview today that one issue on which all of COMSTAC’s members agree is that AST needs more funding.  He noted that it is rare when companies actually ask that more money be allocated to their government regulators, but inadequate resources could “lead to needless delays, create regulatory bottlenecks and stifle innovation.”


Mike Gold, Chairman, COMSTAC. Photo credit:  FAA website.

Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) is another strong supporter of AST, which is part of the Department of Transportation and funded in the Transportation-HUD (T-HUD) appropriations bill.  He testified before the T-HUD subcommittee on March 9 advocating for a $23 million budget for AST in FY2018.  His argument is that space transportation is part of the nation’s infrastructure, launching satellites like GPS that are essential to everyday life, and AST needs adequate resources to execute its duties.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), an industry group of more than 70 companies and organizations, also is urging Congress to fund the office at $23 million. In a March 29, 2017 letter to the chair and ranking member of the Senate T-HUD appropriations subcommittee, the CSF especially cited the need for AST to update outdated regulations.  “It is essential that AST not simply apply additional funds to existing licensing approaches, but in fact actually reengineer those approaches to reduce unnecessary burdens to AST as well as industry.”  The funding increase should be used “to fix AST’s obsolete regulations, and not simply grow its status quo workforce, nor pursue newer missions with a lower priority than the core licensing function.”

The letter and Bridenstine’s testimony were prepared before the Trump Administration’s budget request for AST was publicly known.  The $23 million would be a $3.2 million increase from the FY2017 level, substantial in and of itself.  Now that the request is only for $17.9 million, winning congressional support to raise it to $23 million will be no mean feat.  Getting it back to its FY2017 level of $19.8 million might be more achievable.  Bridenstine and Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) led the fight last year to get the $19.8 million. Kilmer is a member of the House Appropriations Committee; his Seattle-area district is home to companies like Blue Origin and Planetary Resources.  One factor is whether Bridenstine will remain a member of the House and in a position to fight for AST.  He is a candidate to become NASA Administrator.

AST also receives a small amount of money from the Research, Engineering and Development (RE&D) portion of the FAA budget for commercial space transportation safety.  The FY2018 request is $1.796 million, a slight reduction from FY2017.  That money funds its Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation and other R&D activities related to the safe and efficient integration of commercial space transportation into the National Airspace System (NAS).

Integrating commercial space transportation into the NAS is also funded in another part of the FAA’s budget — Facilities & Equipment (F&E) for the Air Traffic Organization (ATO), a different part of the FAA responsible for air traffic control. 

The FAA must clear the airspace around space launches and reentries and is requesting an increase in the F&E FY2018 budget from $2 million to $4.5 million to acquire a Space Data Integrator (SDI) tool that will enable the FAA to safely reduce the amount of airspace that must be closed, respond to unusual scenarios, and release airspace as a mission progresses.

According to the FAA’s budget documentation, some of that money also will be used to initiate a pilot program “related to Space Traffic Management” (STM) that will enable FAA to “move toward the goal of monitoring space traffic and reducing the risk of space traffic incidents” and “enable the FAA to monitor space traffic services and their impact to aviation, consistent with the FAA’s public safety mission.”  The budget document describes the pilot program as funding acquisition
of a high performance computing system composed of commercial and
governmentally-developed analytical software.  “An initial space
situational awareness system comprised of 4 analytical stations with the
capability to store and utilize a dynamic orbital object database of
roughly 500,000 individual objects will be developed.”

STM is an extension of space situational awareness (SSA) — knowing where space objects are and where they are going in order to avoid collisions.  The Air Force’s Joint Space Operations Center (JSPoC) is currently responsible for SSA and computing “conjunction analyses” to warn of potential collisions.  It notifies not only U.S. military users, but commercial and foreign entities (CFEs) as well. 

The Air Force wants the FAA to take over SSA responsibilities for CFEs so JSPoC can focus on military requirements.  Bridenstine and AST Associate Administrator George Nield have been advocating for AST to take on the non-military SSA role for more than a year.  STM implies that an agency
has the authority to require a satellite owner to take action to avoid a
collision instead of only advising the owner that a collision is
possible.  No agency has that authority today, but they view AST as moving into that role over time. 

The pilot program appears to be part of ATO’s budget request, however, not AST’s.  ATO seems interested in getting involved.  An ATO representative gave a presentation to
a Space Traffic Management conference in November 2016 explaining its
Commercial Space Integration Team (CSIT) and laying out an “ATO
Commercial Space Roadmap.”  The budget request does not clarify the respective roles of AST and ATO in this regard.

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