Category: Commercial

Space Policy Events for the Week of December 16-20, 2013

Space Policy Events for the Week of December 16-20, 2013

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 15, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 15, 2013 6:29 pm ET

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.   The House will meet only in pro forma session (i.e. no legislative business).  The Senate is in session.

During the Week

The House has essentially gone home for the rest of the year.  All eyes are focused on the Senate to see if it will agree to two bills passed by the House last week without making any changes, the only way they wlll clear Congress this year.  If changes are made, the bills would have to go back to the House for concurrence and they will not be in session (unless something changes and the Speaker calls them back into legislative session).

The two bills are the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and a final budget resolution that would set top level funding limits for FY2014 and FY2015, enabling appropriators to finalize FY2014 funding.  The existing FY2014 Continuing Resolution under which the government is operating expires on January 15.  

Members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees reached agreement on a compromise NDAA last week and the House passed it without changes.  Similarly, members of the House and Senate Budget Committees reached agreement on a compromise budget resolution last week and the House also passed that without changes.  Expectations are that even though the bills are far from perfect in the eyes of both parties, the Senate will follow the House’s lead and pass them.

Meanwhile, NASA continues to troubleshoot the International Space Station’s cooling loop issue and decide whether a spacewalk is needed to fix it and when Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Orb-1 mission should take place.   That mission, Orbital’s first operational launch of the Cygnus cargo spacecraft, is currently scheduled for December 19, but that date could easily change.

As the days count down to holidays and the end of the year, fewer and fewer space policy meetings are on the docket, but activity will pick up immediately after the New Year.   Meanwhile, here’s what we know about for the coming week as of Sunday afternoon.

Tuesday, December 17

Tuesday-Thursday, December 17-19

Thursday, December 19 

Last Updated: Dec 15, 2013 6:29 pm ET
AIAA Seeks Nominations for Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship

AIAA Seeks Nominations for Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 12, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 12, 2013 8:42 am ET

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), in cooperation with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), has created a new lectureship in honor of Yvonne C. Brill.  AIAA or NAE members may nominate individuals to receive the award by January 31, 2014. 

Brill passed away earlier this year after a superlative career in aerospace engineering that earned her the National Medal of Technology and Innovation among many other honors.  She was as well known for her engineering expertise as for her determination to ensure that aerospace and engineering professionals, especially women, receive due recognition for their accomplishments.   The AIAA/NAE lectureship will be presented to an individual with a “distinguished career that involves significant contributions in aerospace research and/or engineering and will be selected based on technical expertise, originality, and influence on other important aerospace issues such as ensuring a diverse and robust engineering community.”

The first lectureship will be presented in September 2014.   AIAA has strict requirements for nomination submissions, which are described in the flyer below.  The flyer also provides contact information at AIAA to obtain the necessary form. 

 

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2013 8:42 am ET
GAO Denies Blue Origin's Protest Re NASA's Launch Complex 39A

GAO Denies Blue Origin's Protest Re NASA's Launch Complex 39A

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 12, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 12, 2013 5:11 pm ET

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) had good news and not so good news for Blue Origin today.   On the good news front, GAO agrees with the entrepreneurial space company that GAO does indeed have jurisdiction over determining whether NASA is properly applying its Announcement for Proposals (AFP) as it evaluates proposals for the future of Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).  However, it then denies Blue Origin’s protest that NASA is misapplying the AFP.

NASA wants to establish a “Public-Private or Public-Public Venture (PPV)” through “a lease, a use permit or other form of property out-grant term” for future use of the launch pad once used for Apollo and space shuttle missions, according to the report.   NASA has two launch pads at KSC and envisions needing only one for the future Space Launch System (SLS).  It is keeping LC 39B and wants to find new users for LC 39A.

SpaceX and Blue Origin were the only two companies to respond to NASA’s AFP.   SpaceX indicated that it would be the only user of the complex while Blue Origin contemplated a multi-user approach.  NASA is still evaluating the proposals; a decision is pending.  

What Blue Origin protested was whether NASA, in fact, expresses a preference for a multi-user approach in the AFP and is misapplying the AFP in evaluating the proposals.   GAO explains that Blue Origin “reasons that, because the AFP requires additional information and analysis with regard to a proposal for an exclusive use approach … it follows that the AFP includes an inherent preference for a multi-user approach” and a multi-user approach is the “default” approach envisioned by the AFP.

After determining that it does have jurisdiction over this matter, which was disputed by NASA, GAO’s action today denies Blue Origin’s protest that the AFP has a preference for one approach over the other.   “We find that the agency’s interpretation [of the AFP] is reasonable,” GAO concluded.

In a press statement, GAO makes clear that it is not taking any position on the relative merits of the SpaceX and Blue Origin proposals.

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2013 5:11 pm ET
House Passes FY2014 Budget Deal

House Passes FY2014 Budget Deal

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 12, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 12, 2013 11:18 pm ET

The House passed the Ryan-Murray budget plan today.  It still must pass the Senate and be signed by the President.  President Obama has signaled his support for the measure.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, reached a two-year compromise agreement on the federal budget for FY2014 and FY2015 on Tuesday.   The budget conference committee they chaired was created by the deal that reopened the government after a two-week shutdown in October and had a deadline of December 13 to complete its work. 

Expectations were low that any agreement could be reached, but the two announced it on December 10, several days ahead of schedule, an important milestone since the House is scheduled to adjourn for the year tomorrow.  Tea Party Republicans strongly opposed the agreement because it provides more money than agreed upon in the Budget Control Act of 2011, and some Democrats opposed it because it did not extend unemployment benefits.  But enough Members on both sides of the aisle were willing to vote in favor of the plan (H. J. Res. 59) to ensure its passage on a 332-94 vote.   Of the 94 no votes, 62 were Republican and 32 were Democrats.

Questions remain as to whether the Senate will pass the measure, but this is one step forward.  If adopted by the Senate and signed by the President (who supports it), the agreement would mean budget stability at least for FY2014 and FY2015 without the Damoclean sword of a shutdown hanging over the government.

How much money it would mean for specific agencies like NASA, NOAA and DOD is yet to be determined, but the total amount available for government spending in FY2014 ($1.012 trillion) is about half way between what the House approved in its Budget Resolution ($967 billion) and the Senate’s version ($1.058 billion).

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2013 11:18 pm ET
House Committee Approves Bill Requiring Congressional Approval Before Terminating JWST, ISS, SLS or Orion

House Committee Approves Bill Requiring Congressional Approval Before Terminating JWST, ISS, SLS or Orion

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 11, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 11, 2013 5:36 pm ET

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved today a bill that changes how NASA would manage termination of four of its major programs if such a decision were made.  The committee first adopted an amendment that adds the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to the three human spaceflight programs covered in the original bill — the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew spacecraft.

The bill, H.R. 3625, initially had two major thrusts:  to require the Administration to obtain congressional approval before terminating SLS, Orion or the ISS, and to prohibit contractors on those programs from setting aside appropriated funds to cover costs the government would have to pay in the event it did terminate any of those programs for the convenience of the government — called termination liability costs.  

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said when he introduced the bill that contractors on SLS, Orion and ISS are reserving a total of $507 million that Congress appropriated rather than using the money to implement those programs.

The committee was scheduled to mark up the bill on December 5 at the same time it considered three other unrelated bills.   When it came time to mark up this bill, however, committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) announced that more time was needed for Republicans and Democrats to reach agreement and recessed the markup.

The markup was scheduled to resume yesterday, but government offices in Washington, DC were closed because of a snowstorm, so it was rescheduled for today.

The markup lasted less than 10 minutes and the amendment and bill were adopted by voice vote. 

The major change made by the amendment, which was offered by Smith, is adding JWST to the list of programs covered by the bill.  Smith said in his opening remarks that JWST was added at the request of Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), the top Democrat on the Space Subcommittee who represents a district in Maryland close to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where JWST is managed.    One section of the amendment states that although JWST is “making steady progress,” it also “confronts a number of challenging integration tests that will stress a congressionally imposed development cost cap.”

JWST has been very controversial because of significant cost overruns and schedule slips.   In 2011, Congress imposed a cap of $8 billion for development of the spacecraft in the FY2012 appropriations act that included NASA (P.L. 112-55).   The program has encountered a number of technical problems since then, but NASA insists that it has sufficient cost and schedule reserve that they will not impact the cost cap or the 2018 launch date.  The language added by Edwards could be construed as suggesting that such optimism may not be warranted.

Another change made by the amendment replaces language that would have voided existing contract provisions that provide for payment of termination liability costs in a manner inconsistent with the bill.  The new language simply states that funds being held in reserve for termination liability “shall be promptly used” for executing the program. 

The bill also makes clear that it is the intent of Congress to authorize appropriations to cover termination liability if, in fact, Congress agrees that the Administration should terminate a contract and that it is the Administration’s responsibility to spend such funds for that purpose.

Terminating contracts for the convenience of the government is rare.  As the findings section of the bill states, in FY2010, the government terminated “28 of 16,343 active contracts and orders — a termination rate of about 0.17 percent.”

Last Updated: Dec 11, 2013 5:36 pm ET
House and Senate Budget Conferees Reach a Deal, a Few Days Early

House and Senate Budget Conferees Reach a Deal, a Few Days Early

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 10, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 11, 2013 12:08 am ET

House and Senate budget conferees tasked with reaching a budget deal by December 13 surprised many not only by reaching agreement at all, but a few days early.

House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee chairman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) announced today a two-year (FY2014-2015)  budget agreement that replaces the sequester and sets government spending approximately mid-way between the amounts earlier approved separately by the House and Senate. The total amount of government spending recommended for FY2014 in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 is $1.012 trillion.  The House had approved $967 billion while the Senate approved $1.058 trillion.

How those figures filter down to the 12 appropriations subcommittees and the individual agencies — like DOD, NASA and NOAA — they fund remains to be seen, but the fact that agreement was reached at all is a positive sign.   Senate Appropriations Committee chair Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) lauded the agreement, saying it means “we can meet national security needs while meeting compelling human needs like education, health and housing.”  Mikulski’s House counterpart, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY), similarly praised the deal, saying it took “courage and resolve.”

The budget conferees had a December 13 deadline based on the agreement that reopened government in October.   Few expected they would meet that deadline, much less beat it.  The House and Senate still must agree to its recommendations.   Then the House and Senate appropriations committees must agree on how to allocate those funds and get the approval of their respective chambers.  That step must happen before January 15, 2014 when the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires.

While the agreement is good news on gridlocked Capitol Hill, it is only for two years rather than 10, does not raise the debt limit (the current agreement on that expires on February 7), and does not reform either entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid or the tax code.  If approved by the House and Senate, however, it should avoid another government shutdown and provide a framework for the appropriations committees to make funding decisions for two fiscal years.

Last Updated: Dec 11, 2013 12:08 am ET
House and Senate Committees Reach Compromise on 2014 Defense Authorization Bill

House and Senate Committees Reach Compromise on 2014 Defense Authorization Bill

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 9, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 9, 2013 6:59 pm ET

The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees announced today that their committees, at least, have reached compromise on the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  The House passed its version in June, but the Senate version got stuck in partisan debate over amendments when it was brought to the floor for a vote just before Thanksgiving.

Republican House Armed Services Committees (HASC) chairman Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and Democratic Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) held a press conference today and released a fact sheet spelling out key aspects of the agreement.  While it is only between the committees at this point and does not ensure the bill will clear Congress by the end of this week, it could speed the process along.  The House currently plans to adjourn for the rest of the year on Friday.

The annual defense authorization bill is one of the few authorization bills that always clears Congress despite the depth of political gridlock.   It enjoys a 51-year record of success because members of both parties on both sides of Capitol Hill consider defense issues to be such a high priority.  Nonetheless, with the clock ticking, concern has been growing that this year might be the exception.

The plan apparently is for the House to pass the compromise bill this week before it leaves town and the Senate to pass it next week.  However, that would mean no changes could be made in the Senate since the House no longer will be in session to approve a revised version.  That could be a risky strategy since many Senators had amendments they wanted to offer to the SASC version of the bill.  That was the main obstacle in getting it through the Senate last month.  Still, if enough people want a bill, even one that is far from perfect, it could work.  Or if there were relatively minor changes, it is conceivable that the House could reconvene to consider an amended version, perhaps hoping to pass it by voice vote so not all members would need to return to town.

In any case, the nine page fact sheet makes several statements about certain national security space issues, but provides little other detail.  Under the heading Accountability for Vital Strategic Programs and Assets, it says: 

  • “The NDAA also reforms DOD’s business process with commercial satellite companies ensuring that strategic competitors do not gain inadvertent access to vital systems or information.”
  • “Additionally, the NDAA requires the DOD to develop a strategy to lower the cost, thorough [sic] through multi-year procurement, of commercial satellite services.”
  • “In order to protect national security, the NDAA prohibits the President from approving the installation of Russian satellite ground stations in the United States that pose a threat to U.S. national security.”
  • “Additionally, the NDAA supports key national security space activities, including an emphasis on space protection and Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) programs in light of increasing foreign threats, as well as support for fair competition on the evolved expendable launch vehicle program.”

Although the fact sheet does not provide details, the third bullet probably refers to the debate over whether monitor stations for Russia’s GLONASS navigation satellite system should be placed in the United States as proposed by the State Department but opposed by DOD and CIA.

The bill would fund DOD at $552.1 billion for FY2014, plus another $80.7 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (e.g. the war in Afghanistan).

Last Updated: Dec 09, 2013 6:59 pm ET
Space Policy Events for the Week of December 9-13, 2013 – UPDATE

Space Policy Events for the Week of December 9-13, 2013 – UPDATE

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 8, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 9, 2013 3:21 pm ET

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.  The House and Senate both are in session. 

During the Week

The House is scheduled to adjourn for the year on Friday; the Senate plans to be here one more week after that.  If those schedules hold, this is the last week in 2013 that they both will be in session and thus able to get legislation passed and to the White House.   Many Senators say that of all the pending legislation, they really want to get the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed, but they didn’t make much progress before the Thanksgiving break because of partisan disputes over amendments.  The House passed its version in June.  This is the one authorization bill that always gets through no matter how tough the political times — a 51-year record.  Will this year be the exception? 

Friday, December 13, is not only the last scheduled day for the House to meet this year, but is also the deadline for the budget conference committee to reach agreement on federal funding for FY2014, at least.   The conference committee was created as part of the deal to reopen the government in October and even at the time few were optimistic it would meet that deadline.   Nothing has changed.  

Lots of interesting events this week, including a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on “weather readiness” that includes Tom Young reporting on his Independent Review Team that is watching over NOAA’s weather satellite programs.  That’s on Thursday at 10:30 am.  Note that It’s not in the committee’s regular hearing room in the Russell Building, but in G-50 Dirksen.  The previous day, a House subcommittee will hold a hearing on “A Factual Look at the Relationship Between Climate and Weather.”   The witnesses have not been announced yet, so it’s not clear how much if any of that deals with satellite issues.

Separately, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee may resume its markup of the bill that affects how NASA handles termination liability for its major human spaceflight programs (SLS, Orion and ISS).  The committee approved three bills on Thursday, but when it came to this one, chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said more time was needed for Republicans and Democrats to work out their differences so the bill has bipartisan support.  He tentatively set Tuesday at 2:00 pm EST to resume the markup, but it is not definite.  At stake is how $507 million in the hands of contractors will be spent — to execute the programs or held in reserve in case the government terminates the contracts.

Across the country in San Francisco all week, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting is certain to be chock full of fascinating scientific findings.   Many press conferences are scheduled and will be livestreamed.   We created a list of those that are probably most interesting to the space community, but the full list is on the AGU website, so you can pick your own.  That website has a tab labeled “Webstreaming.”  Click on that to listen in.

Meanwhile, the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) and several of its committees are meeting down in Florida, at Kennedy Space Center.  NASA is restructuring NAC, getting rid of three committees and merging a fourth (Commercial Space) into one of the remaining committees.   The way NASA and NAC chairman Steve Squyres describe the situation it’s a done deal, but there might be some discussion of why the decision was made and its implications.   NAC itself meets on Wednesday and Thursday.   The NAC meeting and most NAC committee meetings are available via WebEx and telecom.  See our calendar entries for instructions on how to tune in.  NASA has not posted an agenda for the NAC meeting yet.  Hopefully it will before the meeting takes place.  If so, it should be posted on the NAC website.

Those and many more meetings of interest are in the list below.  These are the ones we know of as of Sunday morning.  We’re posting this a bit early today because there’s a nasty ice storm coming this afternoon and there’s a chance of losing power, so we wanted to get this up on the website before anything bad happens.

Monday, December 9

Monday-Tuesday, December 9-10

Monday-Friday, December 9-13

  • American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting, San Francisco, CA.  Note there are press conferences each day that will be webcast.  Here are three examples that may be of interest:
       
    • Monday — Update from Gale Crater:  Results from the Mars Curiosity Rover, 9:00-10:00 am PST (12:00-1:00 pm EST)
    • Tuesday — Science from Juno’s Earth Flyby, 10:30 – 11:30 am PST (1:30-2:30 pm EST)
    • Thursday — Titan as You’ve Never Seen it Before:  New Results from the Cassini Mission to Saturn, 11:30-12:30 pm PST (2:30-3:30 pm EST)

Tuesday, December 10

Tuesday-Wednesday, December 10-11

Wednesday, December 11

Wednesday-Thursday, December 11-12

Thursday, December 12

Friday, December 13

Last Updated: Dec 09, 2013 3:21 pm ET
NASA Plans Major Restructuring of NASA Advisory Council

NASA Plans Major Restructuring of NASA Advisory Council

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 4, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 4, 2013 5:02 pm ET

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has decided to significantly restructure the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), which provides independent external advice to the agency.   Three of the NAC’s eight committees will be eliminated, including the Education and Public Outreach Committee, and the activities of a fourth — the Commercial Space Committee — will be merged with another.

NASA just renewed the NAC charter in October, making only minor changes to the number of times a year it meets (three instead of four) and reducing its level of funding.  That renewal kept the same committees NAC has had since Bolden became Administrator:  Aeronautics; Audit, Finance, and Analysis; Commercial Space; Education and Public Outreach; Human Exploration and Operations; Information Technology Infrastructure; Science; and Technology and Innovation.

A blog post by NAC Chairman Steve Squyres posted on NASA’s website reveals a decision to eliminate three committees:  Audit, Finance, and Analysis; Education and Public Outreach; and IT Infrastructure.  Squyres distinguishes between the elimination of those three committees and the fate of the Commercial Space Committee, which he describes as being “merged” with the Human Exploration and Operations Committee. 

The new committee lineup will be:

  • Science
  • Aeronautics
  • Technology, Innovation and Engineering
  • Human Exploration and Operations
  • Institutional

NAC will also set up two task forces — one on STEM Education and another Big Data.  They will have “a focused task and limited duration.”

NAC reports to the NASA Administrator and every iteration of the NAC structure and membership reflects each Administrator’s personal preferences on how he obtains advice.  During Bolden’s tenure, the membership of NAC has been the NAC chairman plus the chairs of the eight NAC committees he created.  (The chairs of the National Research Council’s Space Studies Board and Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board are ex officio members of NAC as well.) 

Now, with only five committees, several ‘at-large’ members will be added. They are to provide “strategic insight and expert advice across the work of the entire Agency” according to Squyres.

Squyres says the decision was made after “a recent internal review” by Bolden.  “The restructuring process … will begin immediately and will be fully realized over the next several months. As Chairman of NAC, I’m looking forward to putting this new structure in place.”

NAC’s next meeting is at Kennedy Space Center, FL on December 11-12.  A detailed agenda has not yet been posted, but an overall agenda posted in the Federal Register shows that it will discuss topics in each of the areas of the original eight committees except for commercial space. 

Last Updated: Dec 04, 2013 5:02 pm ET
Third Try's a Charm for SpaceX's First Launch to GTO

Third Try's a Charm for SpaceX's First Launch to GTO

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 3, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 3, 2013 6:17 pm ET

SpaceX succeeded today in launching the SES-8 communications satellite.  This was the company’s third try — or sixth depending on how one counts it.

Three attempts on November 25 and two on November 28 failed to leave the pad for a variety of technical reasons.   Today’s countdown, however, proceeded nominally and launch took place at 5:41 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) from Cape Canaveral, FL.  

SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 lifts off from Cape Canaveral, FL carrying SES-8 satellite, December 3, 2013.  Photo credit:  SpaceX

Getting off the launch pad was only the first step, though.   The Falcon 9 v1.1’s second stage had to reignite in order to continue boosting the satellite into its correct orbit.  This is only the second flight of this version of the Falcon 9 and second stage reignition did not work on its inaugural launch in September.   SpaceX ended live coverage of the launch prior to that critical event, providing updates only via Twitter and on its website.    It tweeted (@SpaceX) at 6:12 pm ET that “#Falcon9 second stage restart burn successful. Orbit looks nominal.”

SES-8 is owned by Luxembourg-based SES, one of the largest communications satellite operators in the world with a fleet of 54 satellites, not including this one.

The Falcon 9 v1.1’s job is to place SES-8 into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) at 295 x 80,000 kilometers (km).    The satellite eventually will be circularized into geostationary orbit (GEO) at 35,800 km using other propulsion.

 

Last Updated: Dec 03, 2013 6:17 pm ET

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