Over three consecutive days this week, European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) Director Kai-Uwe Schrogl introduced his Institute to the Washington space policy community, capping his appearances with testimony to the House Science and Technology committee on Thursday.

ESPI was created five years ago by the Member States of the European Space Agency (ESA) to provide independent analysis for policymakers about a broad range of space policy issues. Located in Vienna, Austria, the Institute receives direct funding from the host government and ESA for operations and the conduct of studies. European space agencies detail staff to the Institute.

At a meeting co-sponsored by George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute (SPI) on Tuesday, Dr. Schrogl and colleagues Wolfgang Rathgeber and Nina-Louisa Remu briefed four ESPI publications, and on Wednesday, Dr. Schrogl briefed a fifth to a seminar hosted by the Space Foundation on Space Applications for International Development. Four of the five studies are available on ESPI’s website; the fifth (Responsive Space in Europe) will be published in January.

• Europe’s Way To Space Situational Awareness
• ESPI Perspective on EU Draft Code of Conduct
• Space and Internal Security: Developing a Concept for the Use of Space Assets to Assure a Safe Europe
• Responsive Space in Europe (to be published in January)
• Threats, Risks and Sustainability – Answers by Space

The Space Situational Awareness (SSA) briefing on Tuesday at the ESPI/SPI event sparked the most discussion. Richard DalBello, Vice President and General Counsel of Intelsat General, argued that ESPI’s focus on governmental approaches to SSA was “insensitive” to what is being done already by commercial satellite operators like Intelsat, which operates a fleet of 50 satellites. DalBello said that the commercial sector could not wait for “glacial” governmental discussions and negotiations and that putting governments in the role of regulator on SSA is “wrong.” The commercial sector is stepping up to this issue, he said, and can help lead the way.

The ESPI/SPI event was kicked off by a stimulating talk by Richard Buenneke, Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Missile and Space Policy. Noting that this year not only marks the 40^thanniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, but also of Sesame Street, Mr. Buenneke joked that his talk was sponsored by the letter “C.” For space policy, he said C stands for the adjectives “congested,” “complex,” and “contested” and the nouns “concept” and “capabilities.” Citing a recent statement by the United States to the United Nations General Assembly reaffirming U.S. support “for a number of long-standing principles, including those in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,” Mr. Buenneke provided a summary of the key features of U.S. space policy and how the five C’s factor into them.

On Wednesday, Dr. Schrogl discussed ESPI’s book on sustainability as part of a panel on capacity building. He was joined on the panel at the Space Foundation event by Ken Hodgkins, Director of Space and Advanced Technology at the U.S. State Department, and Dr. Carlos Ganem, President of the Brazilian Space Agency. Dr. Ganem’s remarks focused on Brazil’s interest in launching a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing satellite to improve studies of the Amazon rain forest. Noting that Brazil’s existing CBERS remote sensing satellites, built and launched in cooperation with China, cannot see through clouds or heavy tree canopies, he appealed for relief from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that apparently are a barrier to Brazil acquiring the necessary technology.

On Capitol Hill on Thursday, Dr. Schrogl was part of a five-person panel testifying before the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee on global space capabilities. The panelists discussed the advantages of international cooperation in space and challenges of international competition. He identified three fields of transatlantic space cooperation: “promising” — space for security, especially SSA and Europe’s draft code of conduct for outer space activities; “necessary” — space as a strategic economic issue area and tool to deal with climate change; and “potential” — space exploration. Regarding the latter, he emphasized that “full and successful use” of the International Space Station must be the priority in establishing a basis for future human space flight cooperation. A webcast of the hearing is posted here.

The Japanese government is looking to cut spending for its Fiscal Year 2010 (which begins April 1, 2010) and the space program appears to be one target. Asahi Shimbum reports that the Government Revitalization Unit, which is looking across the Japanese government to cut wasteful spending, has asked the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to withdraw its request for 5.8 billion yen for development of Japan’s new GX medium class launch vehicle. The GX would be powered by a liquified natural gas engine. Japan has spent 70 billion yen already on the engine and another 140 billion yen is needed, according to the report.

An English-language report citiing another Japanese news source, Yomiuri, has more discouraging news: “JAXA’s financial woes do not end with the recommended cancellation of the GX engine; the advisory committee also called for a ten percent budget reduction to about 350 billion yen (~390 million USD) for resources related [to] its HTV program, according to the Yomiuri.” HTV is Japan’s automated transport spacecraft for taking cargo to the International Space Station. Its first flight was a complete success earlier this fall.

Update

The White House has released this press statement.

Original Story

Amercan and Chinese media sources are reporting that increased space cooperation was one area of agreement between President Obama and Chinese President Hu. China’s Xinhua press agency reported: “Hu said the two leaders also agreed to deepen cooperation on the basis of mutual benefits in areas such as anti-terrorism, law enforcement, science and technology, space exploration, civil aviation, high-speed railway, infrastructure, agriculture and health care.”

The Associated Press reported: “Charting a new frontier for cooperation, the two agreed to reciprocal visits by the heads of their space programs.”

The Chinese government has not approved a mission to send Chinese astronauts (“taikonauts”) to the Moon according to Dong Nengli of the China Manned Space Engineering Program. Mr. Dong reportedly made the comment at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Daejeon, South Korea last week and is quoted by Aviation Week and Space Technology. He also said that “China would ‘welcome’ a chance to join the larger international exploration effort that has coalesced around the International Space Station,” according to the magazine.

China’s human lunar plans are often the topic of discussion in U.S. space policy circles, with some human space exploration advocates seemingly interested in attempting to catalyze a “race to the Moon” atmosphere reminiscent of the Apollo era. Mr. Dong did not rule out Chinese human trips to the Moon, but referred only to concept studies that would be carried out in the “third step” of its human space flight program.

China has launched three earth-orbital human space flight missions to date — in 2003 (one taikonaut), 2005 (two taikonauts), and 2008 (three taikonauts, one of whom conducted the first Chinese spacewalk). For many years it has described these flights as part of an evolutionary program leading to an earth orbital space station. The target date for a 60-ton, three-person space station is 2020 according to Mr. Dong. Smaller space stations are planned as early as 2011, but their size is limited to what can be launched with existing Chinese launch vehicles. China is developing a Long March 5 vehicle that will be capable of placing 25 tons into low Earth orbit. Its first flight is scheduled for 2014.

China does have a lunar exploration program today using robotic spacecraft. The Chang’e 1 spacecraft was launched in October 2007 and orbited the Moon for more than a year before crashing into its surface in March 2009. Future spacecraft in this series are being designed to rove on the Moon and to return samples in the latter half of the next decade.

European and Japanese plans for utilization of the International Space Station (ISS) for microgravity research were presented to the steering committee of the National Research Council’s Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space on October 14.

Olivier Minster of the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Science and Applications Division gave a thorough briefing on the European Life and Physical Sciences Programme in Space (ELIPS) and experiments ongoing or planned for the ISS. Keiji Murahami of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) Space Environment Utilization Center provided details on JAXA’s plans for experiments in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM, also known as Kibo). ESA and JAXA have a joint “International Topical Team” for discussion of “hot” scientific questions that could be addressed through ISS research and development of resulting joint research proposals.

The Decadal Survey’s task is to identify and prioritize fundamental and applied research to be conducted in microgravity and partial gravity. Determining what facilities are available for that research is an important component of the study. The steering committee heard from Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute, and Erika Wagner, MIT, on new and emerging launch companies that are marketing suborbital flights for scientific research and education. The companies include Virgin Galactic, Blue Origins, Armadillo Aerospace, XCOR, and Masten Space Systems.

The committee also received input from Space Studies Board chair Charlie Kennel, who also is a member of the Augustine committee on the future of the human space flight program. Dr. Kennel briefed the committee via telecon about the Augustine committee’s summary report that was released in September. He commented that the final report should be released within days. One of its major findings is that the ISS should be extended to at least 2020, which could make a significant difference in the committee’s deliberations. Ray Colladay, chair of the NRC’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, also briefed the group on the NRC study “America’s Future in Space: Aligning the Civil Space Program with National Needs,” of which he was a vice-chair. General Lester Lyles (USAF, Ret.) chaired the study, and Dr. Lennard Fisk, former chair of the Space Studies Board, was the study’s other vice-chair.

(Note that some of the linked files in this story are large Powerpoint presentations and take a few moments to download. Please be patient.)

Amidst celebration of the successful landing of Soyuz TMA-14 yesterday, Alexei Krasnov, head of spaceflight operations at the Russian space agency Roscosmos, expressed confidence that the International Space Station (ISS) will be extended beyond 2015 during a news conference, Reuters reports. Referring to an expected meeting of ISS partners to be held in Japan in March 2010, Krasnov said “the main question to be raised is whether to extend the life of the ISS beyond 2015. I believe the issue will be approved.”

In light of the upcoming retirement of the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet, any extension of the ISS beyond the current 2015 deadline will continue reliance on Russian systems to service the station even when new U.S. systems become available. For now, Vitaly Lopota, General Director of RKK Energia, which manufactures the Soyuz capsules, told the press conference that Russia had doubled the number of crewed Soyuz launches this year (from two to four), and is increasing to six per year the number of cargo launches.

The Russian statements made on Sunday echo comments made by Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov to the Augustine committee in June. Mr. Perminov and European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain held a teleconference with the committee and both expressed optimism about an ISS extension. The Augustine committee expressed strong support for extending ISS at least until 2020 in its Summary Report in order to increase its return on investment and to enhance relations between the United States and its international partners.

The head of Iran’s Aerospace Center says that Iran plans to launch a bio-capsule carrying “a living creature” within the next two years, according to Iran’s Fars news agency. Mohsen Bahrami reportedly made the announcement on October 6 as part of a ceremony celebrating Space Week. Iran conducted its first successul space launch in February of this year and shortly thereafter announced plans to launch “a successful Iranian manned spacefflight … before 2021.”

The February 2, 2009 launch placed a small (about 25 kilogram) communications satellite, Omid (Hope), into low Earth orbit. It reentered on April 25, 2009.

A meeting last week between U.S. former astronauts, Chinese astronauts, and others, sponsored by the Space Foundation, opened a new channel of communications according to Aviation Week and Space Technology.

The U.S. visitors were shown the Shenzhou 8 orbital module and reentry capsule and a Tiangong 1 orbital target with which the Shenzhou 8 crew will practice orbital operations, according to the magazine. They also reportedly were shown the Change-2 robotic lunar orbiter scheduled for launch in 2010.

The group included former U.S. astronauts Tom Henricks, now president of Aviation Week, and Fred Gregory, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, as well as five of the six Chinese astronauts who have flown in space, according to the magazine. It also reported that NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, a former astronaut himself, plans to visit China “before the end of the year.”

Today Russia will formally announce that it is postponing its Phobos-Grunt sample return mission to Mars until 2011 according to Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com. Mr. Zak had previously reported that the announcement was imminent. The mission also includes a Chinese satellite, Yinghuo-1, a Mars orbiter. The Russian spacecraft is designed to return soil (“grunt”) from Mars’ moon Phobos.

SpaceFlightNow.com ran a lengthy story on Sunday anticipating the announcement, with good illustrations of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft.

NASA delayed the launch of its 2009 Mars probe, Mars Science Lander, until 2011 several months ago. Launch opportunities to Mars occur every 26 months. The United States has launched at least one Mars probe at each opportunity since 1996 (though not all were successful). This year therefore will be the first missed Mars opportunity in a over decade, but it means that 2011 should be a bonanza. The last Russian launch to Mars was in 1996. A launch vehicle failure doomed that mission, Mars’96. This will be the first Chinese Mars probe. The United States and Europe currently have spacecraft orbiting or on the surface of Mars.

Japan’s HTV (H-II Transfer Vehicle) is now successfully berthed to the Harmony module of the International Space Station (ISS). Canadarm II, the main ISS robotic arm (built by Canada), grappled onto the HTV at 6:23 pm EDT yesterday. The ISS crew opened the hatch to the HTV at 2:23 pm EDT today and began transferring cargo into the ISS. Other experiments that need to be exposed to space are in an unpressurized part of the HTV that is accessible externally. They will be moved to Japan’s Exposed Facility — the “back porch” of its Kibo laboratory — by the ISS robotic arm and another arm that is on Kibo.